


The Nanny

by thnx4thosmmrs



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Boss Harry, Character Death, F/M, Falling In Love, First Love, Fluff, Harry Styles & Louis Tomlinson Are Brothers, Kid Fic, Light Angst, M/M, Niall Horan & Liam Payne Are Brothers, Niall Horan & Louis Tomlinson Friendship, Older Harry, Original Character(s), Past Character Death, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Single Parent Harry, Younger Louis, Younger Niall, nanny niall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-02-28 12:43:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13271697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thnx4thosmmrs/pseuds/thnx4thosmmrs
Summary: "Alright Niall, the job is all yours if you're still interested," Harry tells the blonde."Really?" Niall asked in shock.*[Niall gets hired as a nanny for Harry's four children and now he'll have to deal with two boys who want him gone and his growing feelings for his boss.]





	1. Chapter 1

"So you're here for the position of nanny?" A blue eyed brunette boy asks as he looks through a resume.

"Uh yeah," Niall replies nervously, playing with his hands which are resting on his lap.

"Would you be willing to be a full time nanny? If not just tell me which time of the day would work best for you; morning, noon or afternoon?"

"Full time is fine. What would the hours be from?"

"As of right now it'd be from seven in the morning to four in the afternoon or until mister Styles needs you. He says that if you are to stay after four then he'll pay you double for the trouble. You've got the weekends off unless he's off on a business trip and if that's the case you'd need to stay at the mansion with the kids. Hope you don't mind?"

"No I don't. Obviously I'd just need at least a twenty four hour heads up."

"Well Niall Horan, you've got great references and your resume is quite impressive," says the brunette with a smile as he looks up at Niall who relaxes a bit in his seat.

"Thank you mister Tomlinson," Niall says a bit quietly with a blush on his face.

"Just call me Louis, I'm only two years older than you, lad," Louis tells him and he stands up, Niall following shortly after and they shake hands. "Okay so I will talk to Harry and I will call you no later than tomorrow evening. I'm sure you'll get the job though, you're more than qualified for this."

Niall walks out of Louis' office and smiles at the secretary before heading towards the elevators.

It's not Niall's dream job, to be a nanny to a bunch of spoiled brats but the pay is more than good and Niall could really use the money right now since he's starting his first year of college and he wants to move out of his older brother's place since he's engaged now and they're expecting their first baby so Niall would like to get out of their place as fast as he can to not keep causing them any trouble.

His brother and his fiancé are all the family Niall has. Their mom was a single mother, dad bailed on them when Niall was only three, but now their mom passed away because of a drug overdose when Niall was fourteen and his older brother twenty two. Since then, Niall's older brother has been raising him as best he could. Niall's mom had been a teen mom when she had his older brother and since then she'd had a constant battle with drugs and alcohol, it only increasing when his father decided that he didn't want kids anymore.

Niall used to babysit kids over the summers and would earn his own money to buy his own school supplies since his mom only ever used her money on her addictions and to pay bills, if she remembered. Niall had it rough growing up, from not being able to eat because there was no food in the house to always getting his older brother's old clothes. He never once complained though, because at least he had a roof over his head because he knew other kids had it worse.

He just really hopes he can get the job before school starts. He doesn't want Liam, his older brother, to have to keep paying for his things.

As the elevator doors opened and Niall went to step inside, he bumped into a tall man with short curly hair neatly brushed back and wearing some crazy suit with different kinds of patterns on it. It was a yellow color and looked to be very expensive.

"I uh- I'm sorry," Niall stuttered out as he looked up at the man with wide blue eyes.

"It's fine, it's my fault as well for not paying attention," the guy answers in a deep voice, speaking slowly and smiling at Niall and showing off his dimples.

Niall took the apology and smiled at the guy shyly before stepping into the elevator and pushing the "1" button. He couldn't help but lean back against the wall and think about the guy. He had a weird sense of fashion, Niall had to admit, but it somehow suited him. He looked like the type of guy that wore what he wanted without caring what others thought. Niall wished he even had half the confidence that man had. Niall couldn't talk to someone new without feeling nervous and blushing like crazy. He hated that.

The elevator doors opened and Niall let out a sigh before stepping out into the main lobby. He walked past people in suits and out the glass double doors and into the early summer heat. Niall walked down the street to the nearest bus stop and waits approximately twenty six minutes before the familiar public transportation came into view and stopped in front of him. The fake blonde let an older lady get on first and then he did, paying his share and taking an empty seat near the back as the bus began to move.

Tall and fancy buildings rolled past, taxis and people walking down the streets. Important business people and then suddenly they were out of the busier part of the city and heading towards the less busy one with old rundown businesses, crappy apartments and houses that have been standing too long without getting fixed. Niall can't say he lives in one of the bad parts of the city, but it's not exactly a good part either. His brother, sister in law and him lived in a small two bedroom one story house that constantly needed repairs here and there. Niall was thankful though because as long as he had a roof over his head, he was okay with living where he was.

The bus drops Niall off about three blocks away from home and he begins to walk, squinting his eyes under the bright sun and licking his dry lips. He practically sighs in relief when the small house comes into view with the chipping paint and sideways mailbox. He heads up the three small steps and then unlocks the front door with his keys.

Inside Niall finds Angela, Liam's fiancé, in the kitchen cooking lunch.

"Hola amor, how was the interview?" She asked as Niall stepped into the kitchen and she kissed his cheek.

"It went better than I thought it would, though I was interviewed by the guy's assistant because the guy couldn't be bothered showing up," Niall explained as helped Angela chop some vegetables. "The guy said he'd call me no later than tomorrow and said that my resume was the best one he'd seen all morning."

"Well hopefully it all goes well, amor, I know how much you want this job," Angela comforted the blonde, rubbing his back and giving him a smile.

"I hope so too."

*

Letting out a long and tired sigh, Harry Styles watched the numbers on the elevator change each time they went up a floor. Eventually the red numbers stopped on the number 15 and the metal doors opened. Somehow Harry was too lost in his thoughts to notice the short blonde and ran straight into him.

"I uh- I'm sorry," the short blonde said as he looked up at Harry, such a beautiful shade of blue eyes that left Harry a little speechless.

"It's fine, it's my fault as well for not paying attention," Harry tells him, offering the blonde a soft smile.

The blue eyed angel smiled back shyly and stepped inside the elevator before the doors could close and Harry waited until the doors closed to start his walk towards his destination.

"Louis, how'd it go with the nanny search?" Harry asked his assistant and step brother.

"You would know if you'd been here," Louis replied without looking up from the sheet of papers he was going through.

"I know, I'm sorry. I had a meeting with Ed's principal and it ran later than it should have," Harry explained as he sat in front of Louis who still hadn't looked up from the papers on his desk. "Did you find someone that's more than qualified?"

"I did, actually, but it's all up to you. I interviewed five different people, four of which were women and one was a guy a bit younger than me. His name is Niall Horan and his resume left me more than impressed," Louis says as he looks up at Harry with a smile as he grabs Niall's file and hands it over to his older step brother.

"Hmm," Harry says as he scans over the paper. "Eighteen, knows CPR and graduated high school with honors and has babysat kids of all ages before. Have you talked to anyone he worked for?"

"Yes I called two of his past employers and they all said wonderful things about him. And he said he'd be fine if he needs to work on the weekends and didn't utter a single but when I explained the work hours."

"How was he as a person? Did he seem nice?"

"A little shy and he looked really nervous, but otherwise he's really polite and cute," Louis said with a smirk and Harry rolled his eyes as he read over Niall's file again.

"Alright. Call him as soon as you can and tell him that I would like to schedule a meeting with him for Saturday at noon if he's available. I want to meet him and have him meet the kids and I will make the final call then," Harry informed Louis as he handed back the file and Louis nodded. "Anything else while I was gone?"

"Nope. Oh your two o'clock meeting was moved to three instead."

Harry nodded and stood up, heading to his own office and sitting down on his seat tiredly. For some reason, he couldn't get the stranger's blue eyes out of his head. They were an amazing shade of blue and he wished he could see them again.

Letting out a tired sigh, Harry looked over at a picture of all four of his kids. Well technically only two were biologically his and two were his sister's kids, but Harry took them in after his sister died in a car crash six years ago when her sons, Edward, was only six and Mason was five.

Harry in all has four kids, Edward who's twelve now and a typical moody teenager. Then comes Mason who's eleven and thinks he's Edward's twin. Then Allison who's six and a real sweetheart though she sometimes gets dragged into her older brothers jokes on their current nanny. And then the youngest at two years old is Benjamin who's happy as long as someone's paying attention to him.

Harry loves all four of his kids and he just wished that things were easier. He wishes he could find someone to love him and all of his kids. He knows that it'll be quite hard, no one would want to go out with someone who's already forming an army of kids.

Harry at twenty five years old is a single father of four with an annoying younger step brother who is also his assistant. Harry at the age of nineteen got his girlfriend at the time knocked up and he became a dad at twenty. They were together for awhile and then eventually had Ben, but then Hanna, his girlfriend, said she didn't want any of it anymore and walked out on her family. Harry would never forgive her for that and he was glad he'd gone to the courthouse right away to get full custody of his two kids so she won't have any rights in case she decides to come back. Harry really hopes she doesn't, he doesn't want her to hurt his kids.

*

Niall and Angela are laughing about something as they cook when Liam comes home, a smile on his face upon hearing the two most important people in his life so happy. He enters the kitchen and finds them washing dishes and blowing soap at each other.

"What are you two doing?" Liam asks and Angela lets out a squeak and Niall jumps before the two turn to look at Liam.

"Don't scare us like that!" Angela warned Liam who chuckled before he apologized and went over to kiss her softly.

"How was your interview, Nialler?" Liam asks the blonde who went back to washing the dishes.

"Pretty well, said I'd get a call back and that I'm more than qualified for the job," Niall explained with a small shrug as he scrubbed at a plate.

"Well that's great, bud."

"Yeah and they said that if I have to work on the weekends than the pay is double."

"Are you sure you want this? You know it's no problem that you keep living here and all. We don't want you to feel obligated to move out simply because of the baby," Liam told his little brother who shut the water off before wiping his hands and turning to look at him.

"It's not that, it's just that I'm gonna be nineteen in September and I feel like I need my own space now. I love you guys, I really do and you're basically like a set of parents to me, but I want to become independent now," Niall explains to them with a smile though his heart feels heavy with the thought of having to start a life away from the two people he's been with for years.

"Mi amor," Angela says with a teary smile as she embraces the blonde and kisses his cheek.

They all eat lunch together, joking around and Niall asking what Liam and Angela think the baby is. Angela says it's a girl and Liam thinks it's a boy. Niall simply watches back in amusement as Angela argues with Liam, saying _"I know what I'm talking about. It's a mother's intuition, Payne."_ Liam then proceeds to argue with _"Well I still think it's a boy, Gonzales."_

Niall loves his little family. He really does.

After lunch Niall gets a call from an unknown number and he frowns but answers it quickly, hoping that it's from work.

"Hello?" Niall answers as he sits back on his twin sized bed.

"Niall, it's me Louis Tomlinson, the guy from the interview earlier?" A chipper voice answered and Niall smiled a little.

"Yes I remember. Hi Louis."

"Hello, lad! So I talked to Harry Styles about you and he said that he would love to have a meeting with you on Saturday at noon so you two can meet and so you can meet the kids. He was more than happy by your file and I'm more than sure that you'll get the job. So what do you say?"

"Uh I- yeah! Thank you so much for this," Niall tells him honestly and Louis chuckles a little.

"No need to thank me, lad. He's been looking for a new nanny for months and you've been the only candidate he's been interested in enough to have a second meeting."

"Well I feel honored, I guess," Niall said because he honestly still didn't know how to feel about his possible new job. Sure the pay was amazing and he loved kids, but having to care for four kids and have long hours five days a week with possible weekends? Yeah he wasn't so sure. Right now school wasn't a problem since it was summer and he only planned on keeping the long hours until the end of, hoping that he'd get a chance to change his hours once school started.

"Alright lad, so don't forget. I'll text you the address and don't worry, I'll be in the room as well so don't feel so nervous."

"Thank you Louis and I guess I'll see you Saturday."

"Have a nice rest of your week!" Louis said and then hung up.

Letting out a sigh, Niall wrote a reminder on his phone for Saturday at noon.

He walked down the hall, stopping when he heard Liam and Angela's hushed voices coming from the living room. He pressed himself against the wall as he listened close to what they were saying.

"I'm going to start looking for a new job," Liam says and Niall can hear the tiredness behind it and it somehow makes him feel guilty.

"Liam, I told you that I can still work. I don't want you to overwork yourself. I know we're falling behind on bills, but I want to help you. Even if it's just a bit," Angela pleads Liam who Niall can picture shaking his head. He knows his brother too well.

"You know what the doctor said. You have to get plenty of rest. I don't want to risk you or the baby. I'll find a way to make more money before the baby comes."

Niall left after that, not wanting to hear more. He didn't like how much they struggled. He didn't like seeing Liam go out every morning before the sun was even up and sometimes returning when the sun had long gone down. He didn't like feeling like a burden to his brother.

*

Harry enters his house a little after four, feeling tired from the long meeting and sighing when he hears Benjamin crying.

"Daddy!" Allison shouts excitedly as she runs up to him, her brown curly hair tied up into a nice bun and she was dressed in a pink tutu with white tights and a white shirt with ballet shoes printed on it. She was going through a ballerina phase unlike last month's tomboy look.

"Hi my sweet girl!" Harry greets her as he picks her up, pressing a loud kiss to her chubby little cheek. "How was your day?"

"Pretty fun! Except Edward's mad again," she said sassily and rolled her eyes, making Harry chuckle at his daughter who was definitely picking up a few things from her uncle Louis.

"Well that's not new," Harry told her with a smile.

"I heard that!" Edward called from the living room and Harry mumbled 'Oops' at Allison who giggled. "Come take care of your son who's been crying for the past ten minutes."

Harry set his daughter down and watched her run off somewhere while he went over to the living room where Edward was trying to calm Ben down.

"What's wrong with my little boy?" Harry cooed as he took Ben from his oldest son's arms.

"Perrie said he felt kind of warm earlier," Edward explained as he looked up from his phone to look at his uncle/adoptive father.

"Alright, thanks for being with him. Have you cleaned your room like I asked you to a million times?" Harry asked Edward who sighed in annoyance. "I've been asking you for the past week to clean up your room, Ed, I'm not going to ask again. So you either do it or your grounded until you do so. Oh and pass the message on to Mason."

"Fine," Edward huffed and headed off hopefully to go clean his room while Harry continued to rock Ben who was now sniffling quietly.

"Daddy," Ben whimpered.

"What's wrong my little Benji?" Harry cooed at the two year old.

"Icky," the toddler whimpered and Harry sighed a bit.

"Well let's go get you some medicine to get rid of the ickies, yeah?"

It's later during dinner when Harry decides to drop the news on the kids.

"On Saturday I'm interviewing a potential nanny and I want you guys on your best behavior," Harry warns them and Mason and Edward sigh while Allison simply pouts.

"We don't need anymore nannies. Didn't we make that clear when we ran off the last three?" Edward asks his father who sighs.

"Well I can't leave you kids alone and I can't come home from work early. You either take the nanny or you take it. There is no other option and I'm not going to argue with you over this subject again."

"Daddy," Allison whined with a large pout as she looked up at her father through her long lashes.

"No, I'm not changing my mind and he's coming on Saturday and your uncle Louis already said he was a nice guy."

"A he? Well that's new. Looking to hook up with him or something?" Mason snickered at his brother's question, but shut up quickly when Harry glared at him.

"You will respect me, Edward. The fact that the new nanny is a he means nothing. He's only here to watch over you four while I can't and I'd appreciate it if you didn't run him off because I do not have the time to interview more nannies. What's the point of running them off anyways? You know I'll only keep bringing more and more in."

"We don't need a nanny. Why can't Perrie watch over us like she's been doing this week?" Mason asked in an angered tone as he poked at his food, well more like stabbed it with his fork.

"Because she's got a life and she can't do this long term. She's got her own job to worry about," Harry informed his oldest who huffed.

"Well that new nanny won't be staying long and we'll make sure of that," Edward grumbled.

"You do that and I'll keep you from joining the soccer team this year."

Edward glared at Harry and then stormed off. Allison has simply kept quiet and Ben was too young to realize what was going on.

Harry knew this would be tough, but he hoped this nanny would be the help he needs with the kids. He just hopes that the nanny won't run off because of Edward like all the other nannies.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Alright Niall, the job is all yours if you're still interested," Harry tells the blonde.
> 
> "Really?" Niall asked in shock and Louis and Allison giggled.

Saturday arrives much too fast for Niall. He has breakfast with Angela and then heads off to get ready. Before he leaves, his sister in law gives him a big hug and wishes him luck and then he's on his way to catch the bus. He gets dropped off about three blocks away from the place and walks past houses, each one surprising him more and more. The houses were big and fancy, something Niall could never ever imagine himself owning. He shouldn't have been surprised considering the guy was willing to pay him double for working on the weekends.

He stops in front of a house that's two stories tall and quite wide and with lots of windows. There's a gate in front of the very long driveway and a well manicured lawn with bushes lining the porch. There's two cars in the driveway, one being a black Range Rover and the other a silver Audi A4. Niall wonders if there's a more family friendly car parked in the garage that was meant for three cars.

Looking around, Niall finds a buzzer and presses the button, hoping someone will answer him before he's late to his interview.

"Hello!" A chirpy voice answered and Niall sighed at the familiarity. It was Louis.

"Hi, it's Niall and I'm here for the interview," Niall says as he presses the button to speak into the device.

"Oh, hi Niall! I'll let you in in a mo'!"

Seconds later the gate opened and Niall stepped onto the property, watching as the front door opened to reveal a smiling Louis Tomlinson dressed in casual clothes. Niall steps up onto the porch and is pulled into a hug quickly which catches him off guard.

"Glad to see you're so punctual. Harry likes that, so come in. He's in his office waiting," Louis talks quickly and excitedly as he pulls Niall inside, barely letting the blonde take in the foyer. Niall spots a family picture hanging on a wall on his way to the office, but he can't quite take a look since Louis is dragging him along and babbling away about something. The house is a bit quiet considering it's Saturday and four kids live at home, so he wonders if they're even home.

They stop in front of a pair of wooden doors and Louis doesn't even bother knocking before he slides the doors open and walks inside, still dragging the nervous blonde along.

"Louis, what have I said about entering without knocking?" Harry reprimands his younger step sibling who only rolls his eyes and scoffs.

"To not to, but Niall is here," Louis says as he moves so Niall's standing in front of him.

Harry looks up from his computer and they both gasp, a smile slowly forming on Harry's lips as he looks at the blonde.

"It's you," Harry tells the blonde who waves nervously and chuckles slightly.

"Uh hi. I'm Niall," the blonde introduces himself.

"You two know each other?" Louis asks curiously as he looks between the two.

"We bumped into each other quite literally that day you interviewed him at the office," Harry explained, eyes still trained on Niall almost like he never wanted to look away. "Please sit."

Niall and Louis sat on the two chairs in front of Harry's desk, the blonde rubbing his hands on his thighs a little nervously. Harry was shuffling through some papers until he set a folder on top of his other mess and grabbed a pen from his cup holder. Even his pen looked expensive and Niall wasn't sure on how to feel about that. Harry and him were definitely complete opposites. Niall lived in a small two bedroom house where they struggled to pay their bills and Harry seems like he's never struggled with paying anything in his life. It made him envy Harry.

"Alright Niall, so you're eighteen years old and you are certainly more than qualified for this position," Harry begins as he reads over a paper, moving his pen along. "Are you sure you'd be able to watch over four kids?"

"Uh yeah, I'll be able to do so. I mean, I've watched over three kids at the most and all three being really close in age, don't think it'll be too different," Niall replies and looks over at Louis who shares a look with Harry that could be read as _'This poor lad just signed his death wish.'_

"My oldest, Edward is twelve and then comes Mason at eleven and they're... difficult. Edward more than Mason. Mason tends to act like he's Edward's twin and well that never brings anything good usually. My only princess is Allison and she's six and a sweetheart, but she too can get caught up in Edward's schemes. Then my baby is Benjamin and he's two and you'll have no trouble with him, I'm sure," Harry explained as he grabbed a picture frame of all four kids and pointed at each one of them as he explained. The youngest two had most of Harry's traits, but the oldest two looked slightly different from Harry and the younger ones. "Edward and Mason are actually my nephews, but I adopted them after my sister and her husband passed away."

"Oh," Niall mumbles but doesn't say more. He's always found it awkward to say I'm sorry for someone else's loss.

"They're nice kids, it's just that they're so against the idea of having a nanny. I really hope they don't give you much of a hard time."

 _'Well that's reassuring,'_ Niall thought.

"So tell me Niall, you're eighteen, why would you want to lock yourself up by watching a bunch of kids?"

"Um well I just, I'm starting college in the fall and I'd like to move out from my home and earn my own money so my older brother can stop paying for me," Niall explains a little nervously and Harry nods in understanding.

"And don't worry, we'll talk about your new hours before you start college," Harry reassures him and Niall relaxes a bit. "Considering you'd still want to work then, of course."

"Well that's the idea, yeah."

"Alright, so I will go get the kids so you can meet them. Louis, don't scare him off," Harry warns his brother who holds his hands up in surrender though there's that mischievous glint in his blue eyes that Harry has hated since they were kids.

Harry left the room and Louis turned to Niall.

"Are you sure you still want this? These kids can be pretty tough. Edward and Mason like to play pranks on nannies and they've run off the last three, I believe," Louis asked Niall who felt fear grip at his chest but didn't show it.

"Well, this wasn't exactly my first option, if you can keep this between us," Niall begins to tell Louis who promises that he won't say a word and even pretends to zip up his lips, lock them and throw away the key. "I'd applied at four different places in the last month, but they either said that I had no experience or that they weren't interested and I was getting sick tired of looking. Then I saw the ad on that nanny site and I figured it wouldn't hurt to apply."

"Ahh, I get it. Before I started working at the company with dear Harold, I had applied at a billion other places and I only got called back for an interview at this shitty store, but they never called me back afterwards and then my dad forced Harry to give me a job."

"Your dad?" Niall questioned.

"Harry's my step brother and his mom married my dad back when I was around four years old. I live here on most days even though I've got my own place now, so you'll probably have me around often. Don't be so worried."

The doors open and both Niall and Louis stand up to face Harry with three kids standing beside him and one toddler in his arms. The two oldest are looking at Niall like they're judging him, the girl is smiling and showing off a missing front tooth and the toddler is occupied by a button on his dad's shirt, but looks up and waves at Louis and Niall.

"I've never felt so intimidated in my life," Niall mumbles quietly to Louis who laughs and pats his back.

"Edward doesn't like me very much, so that's how I feel everyday," Louis responds back just as quietly, but the glare Edward sends Louis' way tells them that it wasn't so quiet.

"Alright kids, that's Niall, your new nanny," Harry says to his kids who all whine, well Benji simply giggles and claps his hands. "Niall, these are Edward, Mason, Allison and Benjamin."

"Hi," Niall greets the kids nervously and Louis snorts beside him.

"Hi! I'm Allison!" The little girl moves forward until she's standing in front of Niall. Her hair is in two pigtails tied with pink bows and she's dressed in a cute floral print skirt with a pink top and denim jacket.

"Hello love, it's nice to meet you. Your daddy never mentioned you were such a pretty girl," Niall tells her with a large smile as he kneels down to her level and she smiles wider, cheeks turning a light pink.

"Thank you!" She moves onto Louis next who picks her up and kisses her cheeks while Niall stands up, trying not to wince at his bad knee.

Harry placed Benji down on the floor and watched the toddler walk towards Niall with a smile before holding his arms up and making grabby hands at Niall. The blonde looked surprised but picked up the child who cupped his face with his cold and sticky hands.

"Hi!" Ben giggled and Niall greeted him back before making silly faces at the child who laughed harder.

"Boys, aren't you going to greet your new nanny?" Harry asked his oldest two who huffed.

"Hello," Edward grumbled with his arms crossed across his chest.

Harry looked at Niall apologetically and the blonde waved him off, looking down at Ben who was busy playing with a button on Niall's button down shirt.

Edward and Mason left the room and Harry sighed at that. He knew his two oldest would try anything to get rid of Niall and Harry didn't want that. Because he didn't want to search for another nanny, is what he told himself, but really, he didn't want to admit that his heart raced a little whenever he saw Niall.

"Alright Niall, the job is all yours if you're still interested," Harry tells the blonde.

"Really?" Niall asked in shock and Louis and Allison giggled.

"Yes really. Both Ben and Ali really like you and I'm sure Edward and Mason will come around. If you say yes, you can start on Monday."

"Uh yeah! Thank you so much."

*

Monday arrives much too quickly for Niall's sake. He wakes up ten minutes to six and gets ready and eats breakfast before he's off to catch the bus. He makes it to the Styles' house with five minutes to spear and Louis lets him inside.

"Ready for your first day, lad?" Louis asks the blonde with a giant grin on his face and Niall shakes his head.

"No," Niall replies honestly and Louis laughs.

"You'll be fine. I'll actually be around to help you out. I don't do much at work since I'm just Harry's assistant and all he really needs me for is to go get him coffee and pastries. And annoy him."

"Sounds better than watching over kids who glare at me."

Louis laughs at that, but it's short lived when Harry walks over to them from the direction of his office, a large smile on his face and wearing another funky patterned suit. Niall wants to know where this man gets the confidence to wear something so ridiculous and he wants to know how something so hideous can be looked so normal.

"Morning, Niall!" Harry greets happily.

"Morning, sir," Niall greets him back a little unsure on what to call his boss.

"You can call me Harry. Alright Niall, uh it's summer so the kids wake up whenever now a days, but don't let them sleep in past eleven though. Benji is always the first one up, usually around eight, just check on him every once in awhile. Uh emergency numbers are on the fridge, none of them are allergic to anything but any questions just ask Louis," Harry tells Niall who nods in understanding, mentally going over what time Benji usually wakes up and to not let the others sleep past eleven.

"Harold, you have a meeting in an hour, if you don't leave now you'll be late," Louis informs the older man.

"Crap, okay uh, I'll be home by four!"

Harry raced out the door and Niall turned to face Louis who was smiling at him.

"Alright nanny, you hungry? I'll start on breakfast," Louis offers with a large smile on his face. Niall wants to say no, because he already ate, but he doesn't want to be rude and nods instead. "Perfect! French toast sound okay?"

"Yeah, I'll go check on Ben," Niall tells him.

"His room is the one with a blue colored wooden letter B on the front. Down the hall on your left side."

Niall thanks him and begins to head up the stairs, slowly looking around and taking in every detail of the house. He could only ever dream of living in a house like this, but he couldn't ever afford one. He wishes he could, just buy a house for his brother, Angela and the baby so they could have a better life.

Niall reaches the door to Ben's room and smiles softly. He opens the door softly and peeks inside. He's not that surprised to find the two year old sitting up on his crib and playing with two stuffed animals. Niall steps into the room and Ben looks up, smiling at Niall and making grabby hands at his new nanny. Niall is quite shocked that Ben's taken a quick liking to him. He just wishes that Edward and Mason could be like that.

"Hi Benji, up so soon?" Niall questions as he picks up the little boy and places him on his hip.

"Ni-Ni!" Ben greeted him, snuggling into the blonde who smiled wide and rubbed his back with one hand while holding him up with the other.

"Wanna go eat some yummy breakfast?"

Ben nods and let's out a small yawn as Niall begins to head out of the room and down the stairs. Louis' working on breakfast still as Niall enters, Ben giggling tiredly as he watches his uncle do a little dance by the stove. Niall really hopes that Louis doesn't always cook like that or else he'll end up burning himself or the house down. And Niall doesn't want that, he's taken a quick liking to the annoying blue eyed lad.

"Your uncle Louis is so silly," Niall tells Ben who only giggles louder and Louis jumps as he turns around to look at the two standing by the entryway.

"You scared me, lads," Louis says a bit dramatically as he places a hand on his chest. "How's my favorite little Ben?"

"Hungry," Ben replies in between giggles and Niall smiles at that.

"Well I can fix that! Breakfast will be ready really soon, so take a seat lads and let Chef Tommo serve you."

Niall places Ben in his high chair and helps Louis grab plates. Breakfast comes and goes and eventually Niall is carrying Ben upstairs to get him changed.

"Alright Ben, lets get you changed," Niall announces as he sets the child down on the ground and watches him go off to play as Niall looks for Ben's clothes.

"Get out of my room!" Someone shouts from down the hall.

"Eddy's mad," Ben giggled as he kept playing with his toy car.

"Stay here, love," Niall tells the child as he heads out to investigate what's going on.

Niall walks over to the room where the door is wide open and Edward's shouting.

"What's going on here?" Niall asks as he walks in and finds Edward sitting up in bed glaring at his little sister.

"Do something useful, Nanny, and get her out of here!" Edward yelled at Niall who sighed.

"Allison, come on, breakfast is ready," Niall tells the girl who gasped excitedly.

"Breakfast!" She cheers and grabs Niall's hand, leading him out of the room.

"Let me just get your brother changed and we can go downstairs. Do you want to get changed?"

"I do it by myself!"

"Oh yeah? Are you a big girl?" Niall asked her in amusement and she nodded quickly, her curly hair flying everywhere and Niall laughed. "Alright big girl, go get changed. Call me if you need help."

Allison ran off to her room and Niall headed back to Ben's, panicking a little when he didn't see the toddler anywhere.

"Benji?" Niall calls out and his reply is a small giggle coming from the closet and Niall lets out a sigh. Loosing a kid on his first day would not have been ideal. "Oh no! I've lost Ben!"

Ben giggled again and Niall pretended to look for Ben in various places while making noise and he smiled more each time Ben would giggle. Niall eventually walked over to the closet and opened the door.

"Gotcha!" Niall yelled as he grabbed the child who laughed loudly and shrieked.

"No!" Ben laughed as he clung to Niall's shirt.

Niall carries Ben over to his crib and sets him inside as he goes back to picking out clothes for him. Niall grabbed a navy blue colored t-shirt with Donald Duck on the front and a pair of gray colored pants.

"Alright Benji," Niall says as he turns around to dress the child who giggled at the duck printed on his shirt. "You like it?"

Ben nodded happily and let Niall dress him quickly. Allison ran in wearing mismatched clothes, her shirt had polka dots and her shorts were plaid and Niall held in a laugh.

"Done, Ni!" Allison declared happily and the blonde boy cooed.

"Are you sure, love?" Niall asks her as he picks up Ben and sets him on his hip, the two year old swinging his little feet back and forth as he stares at his sister.

"Hmm," Ali thought and then giggled. "Nope. Can you help?"

"Sure," Niall tells her and she leads the way to her room.

Niall grabbed a pair of pink shorts out of her dresser and a white t-shirt with a picture of a panda on the front. Allison nodded at the choice and Niall walked out with Ben to let her get changed. Once she was done, Allison walked out of her room and smiled up at Niall who began to lead her down the stairs and to the kitchen where Louis was still cleaning up his mess.

"Morning uncle Lou!" Allison greeted Louis who turned around to face his niece with a large smile.

"Morning my precious princess!" Louis greeted her just as excited as he scooped her up and kissed her cheek. "Want breakfast? I made French toast."

"Yeah!"

"I'll be in the playroom with Benji," Niall tells Louis and Allison who both nod and Ben cheers as they head to said room. "Alright kiddo, go crazy."

Ben is set on the floor and runs off to his toy area to play while goes off to sit on the couch in a corner of the room and checks the time on his phone. He's definitely not looking forward to a day with Edward and Mason.

Eventually that time comes and Niall is heading up the stairs ten minutes to eleven to wake up the two boys. Mason's walking out his room with his hair all over the place and rubbing at his eyes tiredly by the time Niall is walking down towards the bedrooms.

"I was coming to wake you up," Niall says in a normal tone, wanting to test the waters between him and Mason. "Louis made French toast."

"French toast?!" Mason asks excitedly and Niall nods with slight smile and then he's running past Niall.

"Don't run down the stairs!" Niall calls after him. "Now Ed."

Niall was, to say the least, a bit scared to go wake up Edward with how he treated Allison earlier this morning. So Niall heads into Ed's room and sighs when the oldest Styles kid is still fast asleep.

"Edward, come on, it's time to get up," Niall calls as he goes over to the window and pulls the curtains open to let the sun in and the pre-teen groans.

"Go away," Edward grumbles as he turns so his back is facing the window.

"Up. Now. I'm not going to ask you again because your father told me not to let you sleep in so late."

"He's not my father and you can fuck off."

"He may not be your biological father, but he's the one raising you and your brother," Niall begins to scold the twelve year old who scoffs. Niall's babysat twelve year olds with much less attitude than this one. "And I'm not like your other nannies that you can walk all over and do whatever the hell you want. You will respect me."

"We'll see about that."

"Get up now or I'll dump cold water on you. I'm not playing games," Niall threatened him before walking out and leaning against a wall. "Only day one. I need to find some fucking strength for this."

The rest of the day goes by without a hitch. Edward ignores him and so does Mason. Mason only follows his older brother around like a lost puppy and Niall figures the problem with Mason is that he looks up to Edward way too much. Allison gets a little grumpy halfway through the day and that's when she throws in her tantrums and gives Niall hell. Ben is just Ben. He plays happily either alone, with Louis or with Niall. He eats without a single complaint and even takes a nap after lunch. Niall wishes all three kids could be more like Ben.

Harry gets home at nearly five and finds Niall breaking up an argument between Allison and Mason. Harry simply sighs and walks over to the trio, catching their attention and Allison runs up to her father.

"Daddy!" She cries happily but Harry refuses to pick her up.

"What did I walk in on?" Harry asks her and Mason who huffs out angrily.

"She's just a baby," Mason mutters and Niall sighs, refraining from rolling his eyes.

"Go up to your rooms. Both of you."

Allison pouted and stomped her way up the stairs with Mason following behind her.

"How was your first day?" Harry asks the blonde nanny with a smile.

"Want the truth or would you rather me lie?" Niall asks his boss who laughs at that and shakes his head. "Be thankful that I have more patience than anything in this world."

"Let me guess. Edward?"

"We might have had a small argument this morning. To summarize though, I told him that I wasn't playing games."

"Good. And I give you full permission to be tough with them, especially with Edward and Mason. I don't know what their problem is lately, but they're getting out of control and I don't know what to do."

"Well I'm not an expert or anything, but Mason's problem seems to be more because of Edward. I mean, it's only my first day, but I noticed that when Edward was around, Mason was just as rude as him."

"Yeah I've noticed it too, hopefully it's just a phase though."

"So I'm gonna get going. See you tomorrow," Niall tells Harry a little nervously.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow."

Niall quickly leaves the house and lets out a sigh and begins to walk away from the house and towards the bus stop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been watching HGTV way too much, I need a life


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Honestly I would have let the other kid punch him, little brat's going to get it one day," Louis says and Niall laughs and shakes his head.

"How was your first day?" Angela asks Niall over dinner.

"Pretty good. Louis was there so it helped having him around since he knows the kids better and all," Niall replies, leaving out the part where he argued with Edward.

"So you like your new job?" Liam asks his little brother who shrugs a little.

"Not sure. I mean, I do like the kids, but it's not a job that makes me totally excited to be doing five possibly seven days a week. Might need a few more days to get used to that idea."

"And is your boss nice?"

"Yeah. He's a nice guy," is all Niall says as he keeps eating. He just wants to go to bed, even though it's not even seven in the evening yet, but he's so tired after today.

Conversation than changes over to Angela and Liam who talk about the baby, plans for the future and what not. The rest of the evening goes by quickly and soon Niall finds himself in bed.

*

"Morning Niall!" Harry greets with a large smile as he lets Niall inside.

"Morning," Niall replies a little less enthusiastically since Niall wasn't looking forward to this anymore. It was only day two and he was already tired.

"Alright so the kids are still sleeping and you know the drill. Oh! Mason and Edward have soccer practice today at eleven so please help them be on time. The keys to the SUV are in the kitchen and they have a little flower shaped key chain. You can drive, right?"

"Yes, I have my license so I'm good. Ben and Allison have car seats, right?"

"Yes, they should be in SUV. Practice is at the high school and it's usually two hours. Any questions?" Harry asks as he turns to face a mirror hanging in the hall so he can fix his tie, but he struggles and lets out a breath of frustration making Niall smile.

"Everything's fine," Niall says as he steps up and turns Harry to help him with a tie. "You're a mess."

"I know, thank you." Harry laughs and Niall smiles as he looks up, getting lost in Harry's green eyes for a bit. Harry holds his gaze and Niall snaps out of it when he hears someone walking down the stairs so he finishes Harry's tie before stepping back. "Thanks for fixing my tie."

"It's not a problem," Niall says a little awkward, rubbing the back of his neck for lack of something better to do.

"Neil!" Louis greets happily as he approaches them, dressed much nicer than yesterday but not in a suit like Harry.

"Lewis," Niall greets back with a smirk when Louis scowls at the name before pulling Niall into a hug and Harry is most definitely _not_ jealous at how close Niall and Louis already are after a day.

"Louis, we need to get going or we'll be late," Harry finally says after looking at himself in the mirror one last time and grabbing his briefcase and phone from off the table.

"Alright. Bye lad!"

"Bye," Niall says and watches the two leave before sighing. He's alone in the house with four sleeping children and a long day ahead of him.

*

It's ten and Niall's getting the two younger kids ready to take Edward and Mason to their soccer practice, but it seems like it's one of those bad days because Allison's still grumpy and refusing to do anything Niall tells her to do and all Ben wants to do is play with his toys and he cries when Niall drags him away from them.

"Are you guys ready to go?" Niall asks Edward and Mason as he walks into the kitchen with a squirming Ben in his arms and Allison tugging on his shirt and whining.

"Yes. I don't want to be late because you can't control a couple of brats," Edward mumbles out a bit angrily and Niall rolls his eyes.

"Drop the attitude," Niall warns him and Mason snickers until Niall turns to glare at him. It's been a long morning. "Alright, you two get in the car and I hope all of your things are packed because I am not turning that car around."

"You're mean and I hope my dad fires you," Mason tells Niall who rolls his eyes.

"I'm not mean, I'm just treating you how you're treating me. And don't worry about your father, he knows you two are rude and he gave me permission to be 'mean'."

Edward and Mason both glare at Niall before grabbing their bags and heading off towards the garage. Allison runs off after her older brothers and Niall sighs in relief.

"Why are you so whiny today?" Niall asks Ben who simply rubs at his eyes tiredly. "Figures. Well you can sleep in the car, yeah?"

"Okay. Juice?" Ben asks quietly, resting his head on Niall's shoulder.

"Sure, bub. Apple or orange?"

"Apple."

Niall pours apple juice into one of Ben's sippy cups and then hands it to the child before heading to the garage and getting Ben in his seat. Allison's already buckled in her's and Mason is sitting in the very back with Edward.

The drive to the high school is short and quiet. He parks the SUV in an empty spot and turns it off, the older two kids already getting out and running off. Ben's sleeping in his seat so Niall helps Allison get out of hers before picking up the sleeping toddler and grabbing the bag with drinks and snacks for the two younger ones.

"Come on love, let's go find a shady spot to sit at," Niall tells Allison as he holds her hand with his free one.

One half of the bleachers have shade, so Niall goes up the steps carefully, following Allison to the fifth row of seats.

"You want to play a game on my phone?" Niall asks Ali who nods and the blonde pulls his phone out of his pocket carefully and puts on a kid friendly game for her.

"Are they yours?" A guy asks and Niall turns to look at a guy with black hair and tan skin. The guy is sitting on the row below Niall's so he just turns to look at the blonde and eyes the kids.

"Oh god no," Niall says with a small laugh and shakes his head, making the guy laugh. "I'm just babysitting them. The older two are down there playing. And you? Here with a kid or you just being a creep?"

"I'm here with my girlfriend's younger brother. He's the goalie. I'm Zayn by the way."

"Niall."

The two keep talking for a bit until Ben wakes up and asks for a snack. Niall pulls out two little bags with Goldfish crackers and hands one to Ben and the other to Allison who gives him his phone back.

"Look!" Ben points out to the field where Edward is chatting to a teammate.

"That's right bub, it's Eddy," Niall praises the little boy who jumps excitedly in his seat. "Can you spot Mason?"

"Hmm. There!" Ben points at the player with the number 8 on his back.

"You're so smart, love."

Ben grins up at Niall and then goes back to eating his goldfish. Niall watches the practice go on and he sighs a little as he checks the time on his phone.

"Ni, I wanna go home. This boring!" Allison whines and Zayn chuckles slightly as he gives Niall a pitying look.

"I feel you girl," Niall sighs and Zayn only laughs harder because only he heard Niall's comment.

Eventually Niall and the two kids are saying goodbye to Zayn and meeting up with Edward and Mason down on the field. The two older kids are drinking water and talking to a few of their friends when Ali goes up to them before the blonde could stop her.

"Let's go!" Ali tells her brothers impatiently.

"Ali," Niall calls her, holding Ben's hand so the toddler doesn't run off.

"Who's that? You'r new mommy?" One of Edward's friends teases the two boys who scowl at Niall.

"Fuck off," Edward mumbled angrily and Niall would have scolded him had the child not been in this situation. "Least I knew who my dad was."

"Edward!" Niall hissed angrily, noticing the other boy was getting quite angry and he didn't quite want to tell Harry why his son had a black eye.

"Stay out of this!" Ed shouted at Niall and Ali glared at her brother before kicking him in the shin. "Ow you little brat!"

"You're a big meanie!" Ali shouted and Niall sighed. Day two. It's only day two and it feels like day one hundred.

"Lovely bunch," Zayn comments as he stands next to Niall.

"Tell me about it," Niall mumbles. "Kids, we're leaving. Now."

"You're not our boss," Mason tells him in a snotty tone and Niall is probably one comment away from losing it.

"You better listen to your mommy," another kid teases.

"Alex, shut up," Zayn tells that kid who backs down quickly instead of making the fight even bigger.

"Your girlfriend's brother?" Niall asked Zayn who nodded.

"He's not like that. I swear."

"Boys. Now."

Edward and Mason send one last glare to the boys who were bothering them before walking off ahead of Niall and the two younger kids.

"I'll see you around, Zayn," Niall tells the dark haired male who nods and Niall picks up Ben and holds Allison's hand.

"We don't want you getting in our business," Edward warns Niall who rolls his eyes.

"And I don't care. You're twelve and I'm in charge of you while your father is away," says Niall as he helps Allison into the car and buckles Ben in his seat.

"You anger me."

"Aww, well if you only knew how happy you make me."

Edward scoffs and Mason simply sits quietly. He was conflicted on whether he wanted to like Niall or not, but he knew his brother would get angry if he showed that he liked Niall even a tiny bit.

When they get home, Niall sends the two older kids off to shower while he heads into the kitchen to fix them a late lunch while Allison and Ben play in the living room. Niall's phone goes off as he's making grilled cheese sandwiches and he answers when he sees Louis' name on the screen.

"Hey," Niall answers.

"Hey, how's your day so far?" Louis asks and Niall can hear the tiredness behind it so he guesses his day has probably been as bad as his.

"Just some minor issues with Edward and one of his teammates during practice today. Pretty sure I saved your lovely nephew from getting a pretty good black eye."

"Honestly I would have let the other kid punch him, little brat's going to get it one day," Louis says and Niall laughs and shakes his head. "Anyways, I'm almost home. Harry's in one of his moods so he decided to let me go for today."

"Seems like you guys have had an even worse day than me," Niall comments with a slight frown. He wonders what an angry Harry looks like.

"I'll let you take this one because I know Edward and Mason enough to know that you'll be getting plenty of headaches with those two."

"True. Anyways, I'm making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch, want anything special or have you eaten?"

"I'll take a sandwich."

"Alright, I'll see you in a few then."

Niall hangs up and goes back to making lunch, eventually calling the kids to the kitchen just as Louis gets home.

"Uncle Louis!" Allison shouts in glee as she runs over to him with her arms up and Louis smiles as he picks her up and kisses her cheek.

"Hi, squirt. How's your day?" Louis asks as he walks with her towards the kitchen where he can hear Ben whining about something and Niall letting out an irritated sigh.

"Pretty boring," she replies with a sigh and Louis laughs.

Louis walks into the kitchen where Ben is sitting in his high chair with his sandwich cut up into pieces.

"Edward! Mason! I'm not calling you down to eat again! If you're not here, I won't feed you!" Niall shouts as he goes towards the stairs and Louis snickers.

"You're quite the lovely nanny. Wish I had you growing up," Louis comments with an amused smile as Niall enters the kitchen again.

"I'm nice, I swear I am, but those two are bringing the worst in me out," Niall comments as he sits by Ben to help him eat. "No Ben, we don't play with our food."

"Pway?" Ben asks curiously as he looks at Niall who smiles fondly.

"After we eat."

Mason and Edward walk into the kitchen and Edward immediately glares at Louis who smiles at him just to further annoy the always so angry child.

"Do you boys want anything to drink?" Niall asks the two.

"I want orange juice, please," Mason says softly and Niall nods as he smiles at him.

"Water's fine," Edward mumbles as he focuses on his sandwich and ignoring the rest of his family.

The rest of lunch goes by quickly with just Ali talking with Louis and Ben making strange sounds as he eats, breadcrumbs all over his face and high chair. Eventually Mason and Edward head off and Allison drags Louis to play tea party with her while Niall cleans the kitchen, Ben drinking his juice in his high chair and watching Niall.

"Alright little man, out you go," Niall says as he unbuckles Ben from his chair and picks him up.

"Pway?" Ben asks curiously and Niall smiles.

"Lets go play."

Harry gets home at exactly four when Niall is cleaning the playroom from the mess of toys Ali and Ben created, the two youngest being entertained by a movie in the living room with Louis watching over them.

"Hey," Harry mumbles tiredly as he walks past Niall to head towards his office.

"Everything okay?" Niall asks worriedly as he stares at his boss.

"Long day. You can head out whenever."

Harry heads inside his office and Niall sighs.

"I'm heading out," Niall says as he walks into the living room where Louis is way too focused on watching Dumbo.

"Harry's home?" Louis wonders as he looks over at the blonde nanny.

"Yeah. Still in quite the mood and he's locked in his office so good luck with that." Louis groans at that and Niall smiles.

"Ni leaving?" Ali asks curiously as she walks over to Niall who smiles down at her.

"Yes, but I'll be back tomorrow, love," Niall reassures her.

"Okay. Bye Ni!"

"Bye."

"Ni bye bye?" Ben pouts up at his nanny as he stands on the couch to be at better height with Niall who chuckles softly.

"Yes bub, I go bye bye. I'll see you tomorrow."

Ben nods in defeat and watches Niall go a little sadly.

It's cloudy and a bit windy as Niall walks down to his usual bus stop, praying that it doesn't rain but he's never had any luck on his side and small little drops of water land on his bare skin making him sigh out of frustration. He makes it to the little roofed area of the bus stop just as it starts to really rain and the wind picks up a bit with it, making him shiver. Looking at the time on his phone, Niall realizes he still has nearly forty minutes until the bus arrives.

*

"What's wrong with you?" Louis asks Harry as he sits in front of him, watching him type away angrily on his laptop.

"That meeting I told you you didn't have to be in for turned into a real debate. One of dad's old friends wants me out as the president because he thinks I'm not qualified to take after the family business. Says I can't do a good job on this if I can't even watch after my own kids," Harry tells Louis who frowns.

"That's harsh, mate. Who was it?"

"George."

"Oh please, what does that old man know about running a business? He's just butt hurt because dad wanted you to take over the company and not him," Louis says and it brings a small smile to Harry's face at his brother's words. "Besides, you're doing a great job. The company hasn't had any lows in months and if anything, it's been growing more. Did anyone else back him up?"

"Like three others," Harry says with a sigh.

"Well that's three of the twelve of you. Now, don't worry about that and go look after your bunch. Did Niall talk to you?"

"No? About what?" Harry asks worriedly as he looks at Louis.

"Ed and Mason. They got into an argument with a few of their teammates again to the point where Ed brought up the whole I-at-least-knew-my-dad card," Louis tells him and Harry groans.

"That's the third time. I really don't know what to do with him anymore. I have no idea how to get through to him."

"I have a bit of faith that maybe Niall might be able to. Could take awhile, but I feel like Niall's the one. And I know Mason doesn't want to show it, but I know he likes Niall, too bad he's too busy idolizing Edward to realize that he needs to be his own person."

"Maybe. Niall's pretty great though. I know he's only been here two days, but Ali and Ben really like him."

"And looks like you do too," Louis teases Harry who blushes and shakes his head.

"It's unprofessional and you know the kids will always come first," is all Harry says which basically confirms Louis' suspicions. "And don't get any funny ideas, either."

"What? Me? You're crazy, Harold. Niall's a nice kid and rules are meant to be broken," is the last thing Louis says before he gets up and leaves Harry's office.

"Would it be worth it?" Harry asks himself as he stares at a picture of all of his kids.

*

"How was work?" Liam asks his brother as the two eat dinner on their own. Angela was asleep in their bedroom, the doctor wanted her to get more bed rest.

"It was good. I really like working there," Niall half lies as he brings a few peas up to his mouth.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Just wondering. Must be hard watching over four kids."

"Not really. The oldest two don't require a lot of attention and the youngest takes a nearly two hour nap after lunch."

"Glad you like it. And what are you going to do once school starts?"

"Well my boss said I could keep working and we'd just work around my schedule. He was pretty understanding from the start."

"That's great."

It falls quiet between them and Niall doesn't know what else to talk about. He knows Liam is worried about Angela and well, he is too. Her pregnancy hasn't been an easy one and Niall is scared to think about it ending bad. Angela and her brother are all the family Niall has, he doesn't think he can take losing her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Narry getting together might take awhile so be patient with me please! I don't want to rush this story so it's going to be awhile until they even admit to having a crush on each other.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It would have been a good day had he not started his morning sitting on a farting chair and getting into an argument with Edward and basically getting told that he'd be without a job soon because of two brats.

A week after Niall's first day of work is when things start to go bad. By bad meaning the pranks start. They start Monday morning when Niall sits down on a chair at the kitchen table during breakfast and it makes a farting noise causing all the kids to laugh. Niall simply reaches under him and pulls out a whoopee cushion.

"Alright, jokes over. Eat now," is all Niall says because he doesn't want to give into Edward and Mason's tricks though he knows this is only the beginning of whatever torture they'd be putting him through.

"Lighten up, nanny," Edward tells him as he grabs his spoon and scoops some cereal in it.

"How about you grow up because running away the nannies won't stop your father from hiring more. You can get rid of me if you want, but just know that you'll probably get one much worse than me," Niall warns Edward and Mason who shut up and eat quietly. "I'll let this one slide and any other tiny ones you have planned, but the moment the pranks start getting worse, you won't know what hit you."

"We're kids, stop talking to us like we're your enemies."

"Isn't that how you're treating me? Like I'm your enemy? I'm only doing a job I was assigned to do."

The rest of breakfast Niall spends it humoring Ben who makes up his own words half the time but he says Ni about a million times. Niall adores Ben and Ali, but more Ben because Ali has her weird moody moments where she's sometimes so sassy it's borderline rude. That and she's much more independent than two year old Benji. Niall knows it's wrong to have favorites, but he does and he tries to not let it show because that would probably only make Edward and Mason dislike him even more.

After breakfast Niall takes the two younger kids to the playroom and sits on the couch watching Allison make a puzzle and Ben play with a fire truck.

"Ni, can we play outside?" Allison asks as she looks up at her nanny, brushing back a single curl that fell in front of her face. Niall had offered to put her hair up in a ponytail, but she said no because she doesn't like having her hair up.

"What do you wanna play?" Niall asks her as he goes over to help her clean up her mess.

"Soccer!" She suggested and Niall nodded.

He wouldn't be able to play much because of his bad knee, but he could certainly play a bit and let Allison win.

Once the mess was cleaned up, Niall lead Ali and Ben outside where Ben ran off to play near the small playground they had and Ali went off to grab the soccer ball from the bin of toys they had. Niall and Ali run around for a bit and Ben joins them, but then they head inside because the two kids are tired and thirsty and Niall's knee is starting to ache.

"Nanny, I'm hungry," Edward says as he walks out of the kitchen and looks at Niall with a harsh cold stare that makes the blonde sigh.

"Okay, but there are ways to tell someone you want food and that's not the way," Niall scolds Edward as he walks past him to walk into the kitchen and Edward scoffs as he follows his nanny.

"You have no right to talk to me like that. You're only here to watch over us when Harry can't, not to be our mother."

"I'm not trying to be your mother or your father, but you're not old enough to do what you want all the time. Also, don't get any ideas because I am not your maid. I will not clean your room nor cook for you at the snap of your fingers," Niall warned the twelve year old as he turned his back to him and opened the fridge to find something to make for lunch.

"You won't last long and Mason and I will make sure of that," Edward says before walking off and Niall rolls his eyes.

"What a brat," he mumbles to himself as he starts to make mac and cheese for the kids.

Lunch is calm, well calm because Edward ignores Niall and Mason is just there. Ben makes Niall feed him so the blonde sits next to the two year old and ends up with bits of noodles on his shirt along with cheese stains while Allison giggles away. After that, it's an easy day. Again, but Niall figures he should enjoy these because he feels that they won't last much longer.

By the time Harry gets home, at nearly five, Edward and Mason are out in the backyard with Allison and Niall was making dinner with Ben sitting at the kitchen table coloring in a book.

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Harry says as he enters the kitchen with a smile, going over to Ben and leaning down to press a kiss to his head.

"It's no problem and I already made dinner. Figured you'd be tired and well I wasn't sure what time you'd get back," Niall replies a little nervously and he's not sure why he's so nervous all of a sudden when he's been around Harry before. Maybe it's the sudden sense of domesticity he gets. Harry gets home from work, Niall is cooking dinner and the kids are off doing various activities. Totally normal.

"You shouldn't have, I'm sure you're tired from watching over these little monsters."

"Hey! No monster!" Ben whined up at his father, making both Niall and Harry laugh at the two year old.

"Of course not you, buddy, I'm sorry," Harry tells his son as he picks him up and kisses his cheek. "Have a nice day?"

Ben nods with a large smile and looks over at Niall who's turning off the stove.

"How were the kids today?"

"Everything was good," Niall half lies. It would have been a good day had he not started his morning sitting on a farting chair and getting into an argument with Edward and basically getting told that he'd be without a job soon because of two brats.

"I'll believe you, but I know Edward and Mason well enough to know that you've been working here awhile and you haven't really complained to me about them like the other nannies. Usually by now I'd be getting a 'Edward is a rude spoiled child' or 'I found a plastic cockroach in the fridge.'"

"No cockroaches but they did put a whoopee cushion in my chair during breakfast. It's a harmless prank, but I did warn them that the second the pranks got worse that I'd get you involved," Niall reassures Harry who nods.

"Good. Don't hesitate telling me, even if it's just changing the salt for sugar or whatever."

"No worries, now I should get going before it gets late. I'll see you tomorrow," Niall tells Harry with a smile and the older man nods, walking the blonde towards the front door with Ben still on his hip.

"Uh so I have to go on a business trip on Thursday and I should be back by Saturday, would you mind staying here with the kids?" Harry asks a little nervously and Niall looks at Harry with an amused expression.

"It's my job, Harry and no, I don't mind. So you're leaving Thursday?"

"Yes and thank you. I'll tell you more about it on tomorrow and since it'll be your first time staying here with the kids, Louis will be staying as well to help you out and all."

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then," Niall tells his boss who nods and watches Niall leave.

When Niall gets home, he's surprised to find the house empty. There's a note from Liam on the kitchen counter saying that they were out and they'd be back later, but there were leftovers in the fridge for him. Niall went off to take a shower first and rethought his job. He really has a current love-hate relationship with it at the moment and he is totally not looking forward to staying at the Styles house. Definitely not.

*

"How are you guys liking Niall?" Harry asks as they all sit down to eat the dinner Niall had made them.

"I love Niall! He's so cool, daddy! We played soccer today," Allison tells her dad with a giant grin, bouncing in her seat a bit and Harry chuckles.

"Love Ni-Ni," Benji agrees and he nods.

"Well I don't and I wish you'd fire him," Edward says angrily as he looks up at Harry with a glare and Harry sighs.

"You say that about every nanny, Edward. Just give him a chance," Harry tells his oldest who scoffs.

"Why? Why are you pushing us so hard to be nice to that nanny? Do you have a more personal interest in him like you did with what's her name? Camille was it?"

"I'm only pushing you because I am sick tired of having to search for someone new to watch over you when I can't! I'm sick tired of your attitude and the way you disrespect everyone that walks in through that front door, including your own uncle," Harry scolded Edward who only rolled his eyes, unfazed by the whole situation but Ali and Ben both looked on with wide eyes while Mason tried to make himself invisible because he knew he'd be next.

"He's not my uncle because unlike you, he isn't blood related to me."

"No, he's not, but he's my brother and he was around long before you were even born so you need to not only respect him, but me and Niall. I don't understand where all this anger is coming from, but realize that you can't take it out on all of us."

"I'm not angry, I'm just expressing how I feel," Edward tells him before getting up and leaving the table which makes Harry groan.

"He's got a point," Mason mumbles and Harry turns to glare at him which makes him shrink down in his seat.

"Oh yeah? Enlighten me, Mason, since you think Edward is the smartest person in the world."

"He's just being honest by telling you how he feels about every nanny we get and the way he feels being here."

"And how do you feel being here?" Harry asked Mason instead and the child frowned a bit as he looked down at his food.

"I like it, but it's not my home," Mason says softly before he gets up and leaves as well, breaking Harry's heart all over again.

"Finish eating, I need to go use the bathroom," Harry tells Allison and Ben in a rough voice as he gets up and heads down the hall to the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Harry locked the door after him and sat down on the ground.

"Gemma, help me out a bit. I feel like I can't do this anymore," Harry says softly as he looks upwards.

~

"Sleep tight, princess," Harry whispers as he presses a kiss to Allison's head and tucks her in careful to not wake her up.

Harry walks out of her room after turning on her nightlight and heads towards Ben's room to check on him, smiling when he finds his youngest still fast asleep. After that he heads to his room to hopefully get a good night's sleep.

Unfortunately for him, he lays awake in the dark as the minutes tick by. He thinks about getting up to do some work and get ahead before his trip or text Louis since he knows his stepbrother is always awake at such late hours. He doesn't though and for a split second he even considers calling Niall, but he doesn't because they're not exactly friends and the nanny of his kids is most likely asleep.

Harry's mind is racing with thoughts of how he can make things better for Mason and Edward and thoughts about him failing his sister. He knows that losing both their parents is hard for any kid, but he never realized how difficult it would be to get through to the two boys who he loves like his own sons. And he knows that working so much is only creating a deeper space between him and them and if he doesn't do something, he knows that space will be too deep to get close to them again.

"What to do," Harry mumbles to himself as he turns on his side to look at the window, the curtains blocking out the night.

Eventually Harry falls asleep at past one in the morning and hoping for a solution to his problem.

*

Niall arrives in the morning feeling tired even though he'd gotten more than enough sleep the night before, but parting with his bed so early in the morning is his biggest pain every weekday.

"Morning Niall," Harry greets the blonde a little distractedly, not even looking at him as he just opens the door and walks off.

"Morning," Niall mumbles as he steps inside even though Harry didn't hear him as he's heading towards his office.

The blonde heads into the kitchen to make himself a coffee since he'd left his home this morning without eating anything to not wake up Liam and Angela who had a rough night.

"I'll probably be home after lunchtime today, I didn't get much sleep last night and I don't think I'll be able to function very well throughout the day," Harry informs the blonde who nods. "I also want to spend time with the kids and fix things between Edward, Mason and myself before I leave."

"Hopefully. Want coffee?"

"Please."

Niall nods and pours some coffee for Harry into a mug before handing it over to his boss so he can fix it himself. It's quiet between the two, but not an awkward kind even though the two are like total strangers.

"I should get going, but I'll call you if I'm home early," Harry says after awhile as he places his empty mug in the sink, Niall nodding from his place at the table.

Soon Harry is gone and Niall is left in silence. His least favorite part of the job is the waiting until one of the kids are up. The house is too quiet and lonely, especially if Louis isn't around which he hasn't been in a few days.

Eventually Ali walks into the living room where Niall is reading a book he borrowed from Harry's office. The blonde smiles and opens his arms for a cuddle, which a sleepy Ali will always accept. She gets on the couch and settles into Niall's lap, head on his chest and yawning as she snuggles into her nanny.

"Morning, Ali. Sleep good?" Niall asks her as he rubs her back gently with a smile on his face.

"Yeah," comes her quiet reply.

Ali stays cuddled into Niall for a good fifteen minutes before she decides to get up and tell Niall that she's hungry.

"Alright then, but first lets get you dressed and check on Ben," Niall tells her and she nods, making grabby hands at Niall who chuckles and picks her up anyways. "You're so cuddly today."

"I like cuddles," Allison says tiredly as she rests her head on her nanny's shoulder as they head upstairs.

Once in Ali's room, Niall sets her on her bed and goes to her dresser to find her something to wear.

Niall's just grabbing a t-shirt out of the drawer when Benji starts to make noise through the baby monitor Niall has attached to his belt.

"Wait here love, I'm gonna go check on your brother," Niall tells Ali who nods and grabs her stuffed animals and begins to play as Niall heads over to Ben's room.

"Ni!" Ben cheered as he stood up on his crib and smiled at Niall who quickly walked over to take the child out of his crib.

"Hi bub, how are you this morning?" Niall asks the child as he heads over to Ali's room to pick out her clothes.

"Good."

Soon Niall is taking both kids downstairs and sitting them in their seats so he can start on breakfast.

"Morning," Mason greets softly as he walks into the kitchen and Niall turns to look at him with a soft smile.

"Morning Mason. I'm making pancakes for breakfast, want anything special in them?" Niall asks him. Really, the only times Niall can have a nice time with Mason is when Edward isn't around.

"Are there chocolate chips?" Mason asks as he sits at the table next to Ali.

"Yeah. You kids want chocolate chips in your pancakes?" Niall asks the three who cheer and Niall laughs as he gets to work on their breakfast.

Edward walks into the room as they all start to eat breakfast. Niall looked up at him but said nothing because Edward looked to be in a really bad mood, so he went back to feeding Ben whose whole face was now covered in syrup and chocolate.

"Your father's coming home early today," Niall informs the kids, earning excited noises from Allison and Ben while Mason simply huffed and Edward scoffed as he sat at the table with a glass of milk.

"But Ni, are you leaving early?" Ali asks with a sad pout as she looks up at her nanny.

"Well yeah, but don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow morning," Niall reassured her with a smile.

"How about you don't come back anymore?" Edward suggests and Mason simply looks down at his pancakes.

"Hmm, how about I do so I can keep making your summer a bust?"

Mason snickered and Niall cleaned up Ben's face once he was done eating. Conversation between Niall and Edward ends soon after and all the kids finish eating, running off to go do whatever they do. Harry gets home at around the time Niall is setting Ali and Ben to watch cartoons while he goes off to make lunch.

"Daddy!" Ali and Ben cheer, running up to their father who kneels down to hug the two.

"Hi my bugs," Harry greets them with a large smile, kissing both their cheeks. "Have a nice day?"

"Yes! Ni made pancakes," Ali tells her father who fakes his excitement to match his daughter's.

"Did he now?" Harry asks as he looks up at Niall who rolls his eyes though there's a faint blush on his cheeks. "Go finish watching your show, I'll be with you in a bit."

The younger two kids nod and run off while Harry stands up and walks up to the nanny.

"Were they good?" Harry asks Niall.

"Yeah, a very easy day. Mason and I had a very good morning and then Edward seemed angrier than normal," Niall tells his boss who nods with a sigh leaving his lips.

"We got into an argument yesterday and I'm really hoping to talk to him and Mason today and see if I can get through to them."

"Well good luck with that. I'm gonna get going now."

"Alright. So you can come in a bit later tomorrow since I'm heading straight for the airport from here. Nine is good, I have to leave by ten," Harry says and Niall nods, having momentarily forgotten that he was supposed to stay with the kids over night. "I should be back by Saturday morning, but if something comes up along the way than I'll call Friday afternoon to tell you."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow than."

Harry nods and watches the blonde head into the living room to say goodbye to the kids and soon the blonde is heading out the front door, leaving Harry to deal with his four kids on his own and to hopefully fix his situation with the older two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why it took me so long to update, but I promise next update won't take so long :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Alright kids, be good. Niall and Louis have full permission to ground you. Do what your told and you know the rules, just because I'm not here it doesn't mean that you guys do whatever you want. Do I make myself clear?" Harry warns all four of his kids.

"So when are you coming back?" Liam asks his brother a little worriedly as he watches the blonde double check his overnight bag before zipping it up.

"Saturday, hopefully. If not I'll call you," Niall tells him with a smile as he grabs his phone and wallet from his nightstand.

"Alright, be safe. Call if you need anything."

"Don't worry, Li, Louis will be there anyways so I won't be completely alone watching over four kids."

The two walk out of the blonde's room and head to the kitchen where Angela is cleaning up their mess from breakfast. She turns around to look at Niall with tired brown eyes and she approaches him.

"Alright, amor, be safe and we'll see you Saturday," she says softly and kisses his forehead. "Love you."

Niall smiles at her and then he's off to work. It'll definitely be a different experience to stay overnight with the kids and spend two full days with them, something he's very obviously never done before with any kid he's ever babysat and he's kinda scared if he's being honest. Mostly because of Edward and Mason, but with Louis there he supposes it'll be fun. He just hopes Harry's trip doesn't make him stay for an extra day or two.

"Morning, Niall," Harry greets with a smile as he lets the blonde inside the house, dressed in slightly more casual clothes.

"Morning," Niall replies with a smile.

"Louis is in the kitchen feeding the kids so in the meantime, I'll go show you to the guest room and go over a few things before I leave."

Niall nods and Harry leads him upstairs where they turn left and not right where the kids bedrooms are. Niall's only been to that part of the house once or twice when chasing Ben around, but looking at it better he sees the master bedroom at the very end of the hall. The guest room is right there as soon as they'd turned left with a bathroom across from it. The room is bigger than his actual bedroom with a queen sized bed, two nightstands, a dresser, window that gives view to the side yard and a small closet that is still bigger than his actual one.

"So you'll be staying here. Louis' room is right next door and the bathroom is right across from here but if you want feel free to use mine. Louis can take forever when he's showering or he'll leave a mess," Harry says with a roll of his eyes and Niall giggles a bit. "Okay so bedtimes. Edward will usually go up to his room by nine if he's downstairs, but I'm not too worried about him since he's usually always in there. Mason's bedtime is ten, Ali's is nine and Ben usually drops by eight or eight thirty. You don't even have to try with Ben, he'll fall asleep even if he's coloring or whatever."

"Okay. And bathtime?" Niall asks, making notes in his phone to remember everything.

"It doesn't really matter, but normally Ben's bath time is at seven and Ali's is at eight. Mason and Edward are old enough to know when they should take a shower so they're okay. Oh and they have another soccer practice later today at noon and a game on Saturday morning. The details for the game are on the fridge."

Niall nods and sets his bag down on the bed. That was a lot of information to take in, but he was hopeful that things would go okay and all.

"Alright, I have to get going," Harry says as he checks his watch.

NIall follows Harry downstairs and the two walk into the kitchen where the kids have now finished eating and are placing their dirty dishes in the sink, well with the exception of Ben who's still in his high chair watching his siblings.

"Ni-Ni!" The two year old cheers when he spots his nanny who smiles and goes over to take him out of his seat.

"Hi bub," Niall greets Ben with a smile as he lifts him up.

"Alright kids, I gotta get going but I'll see you on Saturday," Harry tells them and Allison goes up to her father a little sadly. "Be good to Niall and your uncle Louis."

"Promise," she says with a smile.

"Abandoning us again?" Edward asks in his snotty tone that makes Niall roll his eyes as he watches a bunch of different emotions flicker across Harry's face.

"Edward please, we talked about this last night. I'm not going to argue with you over this," Harry warns his oldest with a stern voice.

Edward didn't say anything else and Niall looked at Harry who made his way over to Ben who's still in Niall's arms. Niall and Harry locked eyes briefly before Harry looked at his two year old and took him from the nanny's arms.

"Be good, bud. Eat your veggies and don't give Niall a hard time, yeah?" Harry tells his youngest who nods rapidly. "Good."

Harry hands Ben back to Niall, Allison now standing next to her nanny and Mason and Edward join in as well.

"Alright kids, be good. Niall and Louis have full permission to ground you. Do what your told and you know the rules, just because I'm not here it doesn't mean that you guys do whatever you want. Do I make myself clear?" Harry warns all four of his kids.

"Clear," the older three responde while Ben simply nods and giggles.

Harry is gone a few minutes later and Niall and Louis share a look as Ali runs off screaming and Edward and Mason glare at Niall before walking out of the kitchen.

"Ready for the best two days of your life, lad?" Louis asks as he goes over to the sink, Niall setting Ben down as he goes over to help Louis clean up.

"Nope. I'm kinda scared if I'm being honest," Niall confesses and Louis laughs at that.

Niall heads off to find the younger two after helping Louis in the kitchen and finds them in their play room already with a mess of crayons, toy trucks and blocks. Niall shakes his head fondly and goes over to sit next to Allison who's playing with a Thor action figure and a Barbie doll.

"Having fun?" Niall asks her with amusement in his voice as he watches Ali make her Barbie rescue Thor who's being held captive by the Joker. What an interesting game.

"Lots. Daddy got mad at Eddy and Mason yesterday," Ali tells him as she looks up at him with a grin. Apparently the idea of her older brothers getting in trouble amused her. Siblings.

"Yeah? Is he always getting mad at your brothers?"

"Always. Eddy is always mad and he yells at daddy a lot and I know it makes daddy sad. Eddy and Mason used to play with us a very long time ago."

"Must have been fun."

"Ni, potty!" Ben says urgently and Ali giggles as Niall quickly stands up and takes Ben to the bathroom.

Later after a really quick lunch, Niall and Louis were taking the kids to the park for Edward and Mason's soccer practice. Ben was dozing off in the backseat while Ali did a good job of annoying her older brothers.

"Ali, sweetie, why don't you play with my phone?" Louis suggests as he turns around in the passenger seat and hands his phone over to a happy Ali who quickly snatches it and puts the password in.

"You should probably consider changing that," Niall tells Louis.

"That's the fifth time I've done it this month. It'd be best if I just remove the password all together now." Louis shrugs as he faces forward, but Niall looks through the mirror to see Ali taking selfies and he smiles fondly.

They reach the park where Edward and Mason's soccer practice is at and the two boys run off as soon as the car is parked and Ben perks up as soon as he sees the playground. Ali drops Louis' phone in her excitement and Niall snickers. Niall gets the kids out of the car and helps Ali and Ben out while Louis grabs his phone and the bag that has the kids' snacks.

The four then make their way to the playground area where Allison and Ben quickly run off to play, leaving the nanny and their uncle to sit on a bench where they could see the two younger ones playing and the older two off on the field.

"Are they good at soccer?" Niall asks Louis, eyes trained on the bunch of pre teens running around.

"They are, but Edward can get pretty rough. Especially now with his anger, he sometimes takes it out on the rival team or his own teammates," Louis explains with a small shake of his head. "He got a red card about three games ago and was suspended for two. Saturday will be the first day he plays since then."

"I want to help Harry with Edward, but I just don't know how to get close to him without setting him off. He actually kind of scares me, especially now that he's started with his pranks."

"Honestly, I don't think there is anyone out there that can get through to Edward anymore. I know he misses his parents, but he's keeping all of his feelings inside and that's what's hurting him."

Niall stays quiet after that, just thinking. Maybe him and Edward aren't so different after all. As awful as things were, Niall misses his parents an awful lot as well, even his father who he doesn't remember much of anymore.

"So Neil, lad, you dating anyone?" Louis asks out of nowhere minutes later after watching the practice and then checking up on the younger two. Niall's eyes widened as he looked over at Louis who was looking at him with an innocent look.

"Um no. Um I-I've never uh never d-dated anyone," Niall confesses through stuttering and his face feeling so hot like he's never felt it before.

Louis gasps and looks at Niall with wide eyes not believing that the blonde had never dated anyone.

"You're eighteen right?" Louis asks once he recovers from his shock and Niall nods. "Why? I mean, it's okay if you don't want to date or if you're not interested in that kind of stuff, but I mean, you're a great guy and you're so cute I want to pinch your cheeks everyday. Is there a reason?"

"I mean, after my dad left, my mom just stopped caring about my brother and I and people knew she was a drug addict. She was in bars in the weekends and she'd get arrested often so growing up most kids tended to stay away from my brother and I because of our mom. When she passed away, I shut down for a bit. While I knew that I liked boys, I just didn't want anything to do with dating or wanting to fall in love. I was scared to end up like my mother. I still am," Niall tells Louis with a small sigh. "And now with me starting college in September, I don't want anything to distract me from wanting to have a career and help my brother out."

"You're a very nice lad. Bet your brother is real proud of you."

Niall blushed again and looked back over at the game where Edward was practicing his shots into the net. A few minutes later, Ben is crying and Niall rushes off to tend to the two year old who's sitting on his knees in the sand with big fat tears running down his cheeks.

"Oh love, what happened?" Niall asks as he picks up Ben and sets him on his hip, brushing off the sand from his pale legs and checking him over for any scrapes and blood.

"Go home!" Ben sobbed into Niall's shoulder, no doubt leaving snot behind but Niall was used to it all.

"He tripped on that," Ali says as she points to a small step.

"Alright. Do you want to come eat a snack, Ali? Drink some water?" Niall offers the little girl who nods and follows her nanny over to the bench where Louis takes out a water bottle and some fruit snacks.

Niall sits down on the bench with Ben still in his lap, but the two year old is curled up into his chest still hiccuping a little though his eyes look heavy with sleep. Ali sits beside Louis drinking water and eating her fruit snacks as she watches the practice continue, swinging her little legs back and forth.

It's quiet between them, just letting the sound of the boys running around and their couch blowing his whistle and yelling orders fill in the quiet.

"Hey! Watch it!" Edward shouts angrily and Niall looks up to find Edward pushing at one of his teammates.

"How lovely," Niall comments dryly and he sighs when the other kid punches Edward.

"Not surprised," Louis says as he shakes his head at the scene as the couch and the other kids try to separate Edward and the kid.

Once practice ends, Edward and the kid stay back with the coach who calls for their parents. Mason is talking to a friend before he says goodbye and starts to head over to the bench where the rest of his family and Niall are.

"Alright nanny boy, dutty calls," Louis says as he looks at Niall with a smirk.

"You're his uncle, pretty sure you should take this one," Niall tries, shifting Ben who's fast asleep in his lap.

"Harry left you in charge for a reason."

Niall sighs and stands up anyways with Ben, walking across the grass to where the coach, Edward, the kid and a blonde lady are standing. They all look over at Niall, Edward scowling but not being able to look at Niall in the eye and the other three a bit confused.

"Are you Edward's father?" The coach asks Niall curiously.

"Uh no, his father is off on a business trip and left me in charge," Niall explains, not wanting to right out mention that he's Edward's nanny to not embarrass him.

"He's Edward's nanny," the other kid snickers and the blonde woman glares at him which shuts him up.

"Okay. This kind of behavior is not acceptable and unfortunately, Edward's been causing a lot of problems lately and I would hate to have to drop him from the team because he's such a good player," the coach speaks up and Edward looks down at his feet.

"Okay, yeah I understand," Niall tells the couch, shifting Ben up in his arms a bit and looking over at Edward who had a bruise forming right under his right eye. "I will talk to Edward and to his father about this."

"Very well. Now, as for what happened on the field today, I will let them both go with a warning but if it happens again, it will result in a game suspension, are we clear boys?"

"Yes coach," the two boys mumbled.

The coach nodded and walked off leaving Niall with the woman and the two boys.

"I'm sorry about Edward's behavior," Niall tells her, Edward going over to stand slightly behind his nanny.

"Don't apologize dear. I know Alex here can get a little riled up," she says with a slight chuckle. "I'm Perrie and this is my younger brother."

"I remember. I saw Alex at the last practice with Zayn. I'm Niall."

"Yeah, Zayn's my boyfriend."

"Can we go?" Edward asks as he tugs at Niall's shirt restlessly.

"Yeah, go wait with your siblings and Louis," Niall tells him and Edward walks off. "I gotta get going, duty calls."

"I'll see you around then!" Perrie says and Niall walks off with Ben still fast asleep.

The drive home is quiet and once they get there, Edward heads straight for the kitchen to grab an ice pack and Niall sets Ben down on the couch in the living room knowing he'll wake up any second. Allison goes off to play, Louis to use the bathroom and Mason heads upstairs to shower.

"Come here," Niall says as he takes a seat on a chair and motions for Edward to stand in front of him.

Edward does as he's told and stands in front of Niall with the ice pack pressed under his eye. Niall reaches up and removes the pack and Edward still won't look at him.

"Does it hurt a lot?" Niall asks him quietly as he inspects the bruise.

"No," Edward mumbles. "I'm sorry. I promised Harry I wouldn't give you such a hard time while he's away."

"I'm not mad," Niall tells him, a small part of him really glad that Edward was opening up to him even if it was just a little. "I know kids can be cruel, trust me I experienced enough bullying to want to wish it on my worst enemy. If you ever need to talk to me though, I'm here for you and Mason."

Edward nods, but he grabs his ice pack and leaves. Louis walks into the kitchen and smiles at Niall before heading straight for the fridge.

"Are you going to tell Harry what happened?" Louis asks as he sits next to Niall.

"Kind of have to. Can't really hide a bruise like that," Niall tells Louis who snorts as he opens his yogurt.

"True. Anyways, I'm going out tonight. Will you be okay with the kids on your own?"

"I'll be fine. You go have fun."

Niall is a bit scared of spending his first night with the kids alone, but he also doesn't think that it's fair for Louis to be stuck here helping him out when it's Niall's job to do so. That's why he gets paid nearly triple the amount of what he did when he was only fifteen.

The rest of the day goes by easy. Niall plays with Ali and Ben, he makes dinner for everyone and then they all (Mason and Edward included) watch a movie in the entertainment room where there's a huge movie theater type screen and comfy seats. They make popcorn and it shocks Niall to heard Edward laugh at the screen. Afterwards Louis goes off to get ready and Edward sits on the couch playing on his phone.

"Benji, bath time!" Niall calls as he walks into the playroom.

"Toys?" Ben asks Niall as he looks up at the blonde who nods and picks him up.

"Of course and I'll even let you have bubbles."

"Yes!" Ben clapped.

Niall carries Ben upstairs where Louis is rushing around getting ready and it makes Niall wonder if he has a date or something. Niall grabs some pajamas from Ben's dresser before heading into the bathroom that Ben and Ali shared.

Bath time is messy and Niall's clothes end up wet, but he's got a sleepy Ben now wrapped in a fluffy dark blue towel and sitting on the rocking chair in his room.

"Hey, I'm leaving," says Louis as he walks into the bathroom with a smile, going over to kiss Ben's cheek. "Be good to your nanny, bub."

"Bye uncle Lou," Ben says quietly, giving his uncle a tired smile and Niall can't help but coo at the two year old.

"Have fun on your date," Niall teases Louis who turns bright red.

"I will."

Louis leaves the room and Niall quickly dresses Ben before tucking him in his crib. Ben's eyes close right away and soon he's fast asleep so Niall turns on the monitor, grabs the other one and leaves the room after turning on his night light and leaving the door ajar.

Edward and Mason head into their rooms once Niall is done with Allison's bath and then he tucking her in her bed.

"Night, sweets," Niall tells her quietly, brushing back her hair.

"Night Ni. Love you," she mumbles and Niall smiles wide, heart filling with so much joy.

"Love you too, sweets."

Niall leaves her room and then heads into the guest room, removing his shoes and setting the baby monitor to Ben's room on the nightstand. He looks around the room and sighs. It's so different from his own and for a very brief second he wonders what it would have been like growing up in a house this big. He's pulled out of his thoughts by his phone going off and he smiles when he sees Liam's name on the screen.

"Hello," Niall answers as he lays back on the bed.

"Hey, how's your day going?" Liam asks Niall who lets out a tired sigh that makes Liam laugh.

"It's not that bad. Tired the younger kids out at the park today so they're fast asleep right now and the older two are in their rooms as well and even though it's barely nine pm, I'm exhausted. How are you and Angela?"

"Pretty good. She's been doing great."

They talk for a few more minutes until Liam decides to hang up to let Niall rest. The blonde hops in the shower though and tries to hurry up in case Ali or Ben wake up or the older two need him. He wonders if it's this hard for Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working real hard on this story all week to be able to give you guys twice a week updates, but for now we're sticking to just Fridays until I feel like I have enough chapters done to give you updates on Tuesdays and Fridays :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall's heading towards the stairs when it happens. He hears a small whisper and just before he can look up, there's something cold and slimy being poured onto him.

Morning arrives and Niall is up at eight knowing full well that Ben doesn't usually wake up until past eight thirty now a days. Niall does his bed, brushes his teeth and hair and changes into blue jeans and a simple t-shirt. As he walks out of his room, he sees that Louis' door is closed and Niall wonders when he got home. Niall heads into Ben's room and smiles when he sees the toddler starting to wake up so he goes up to the crib and runs his fingers through Ben's messy hair.

"Morning bub," Niall greets him quietly and Ben raises his arms up to Niall who picks him up and rocks the child while rubbing his back. "You're so cuddly in the mornings, I should just call you teddy."

Ben giggles and buries his face into Niall's neck. Niall heads over to the changing table to take off Ben's pull up and change the two year old who laid on his back yawning and rubbing his eyes. Niall makes conversation with Ben, though the two year old replies in very few words, but Niall knows it's good to talk to Ben, to help with his vocabulary.

"What do you want for breakfast, bug?" Niall asks as he sits up the child and puts his left converse on his left foot, looking up at the child who thinks about it for a bit.

"Hmm, bacon!" Ben cheered and Niall laughed. "And mushy eggs."

"Scrambled eggs?" Niall guesses and the child nods happily. "That sounds yummy. And some toast?"

"Yes please."

Once Niall finishes dressing the boy, he helps him off the changing table and holds his hand as they walk down the hall towards the stairs. Before they can reach the stairs, however, Ali walks out of her room with her curly hair a tangled mess and she runs over to Niall with bare feet.

"Morning Ni!" Allison greets him with a large smile and the blonde smiles back down at the five year old.

"Morning, princess. Would you like to get changed before breakfast? Making bacon and scrambled eggs," Niall asks her and she nods excitedly before running off to her room.

Once Ali is ready and Niall does her bed and opens up the curtains in her room, the three head downstairs quietly to not wake up Louis, Edward and Mason. Niall sits Ben in his high chair and Ali sits in her usual seat at the table while Niall grabs the bacon out of the refrigerator and the eggs.

"Morning," Louis greets tiredly as he enters the room still in his pajamas and he goes over to put the kettle on for some tea.

"Morning uncle Louis!" The two kids greet their uncle who winces a little.

"So how was your night?" Niall asks Louis with a smirk and Louis blushes a bit.

"Well I was supposed to attend a date with this guy I met at the office last week, but he kinda stood me up and so I went to the bar and I met this guy. He's really hot and we talked, but he's got a girlfriend," Louis explains with a small shrug as he looks at Niall who gives him a soft smile.

"Aww, Lou. I'm sure you'll find someone better soon."

Louis rolls his eyes and helps Niall cook the bacon while the blonde does the eggs and toast. Ali and Ben are playing peek-a-boo so the two don't even bother keeping their voices down because the kids aren't even paying attention.

"Speaking of someone, can I hook you up with my brother?"

"What?! No! Are you nuts?" Niall all but shrieked out as he looked at Louis with wide eyes and the older male just laughed like he knew something that Niall didn't.

"But you so like him."

"Do not," Niall denied it, but his cheeks turned red and it made Louis laugh harder.

"You're so cute, lying to yourself about not having feelings for my brother. It's normal. I mean, you're here at least five days a week and he's probably the only other guy besides me and your brother that you see because knowing you, you probably never go out on the weekends to have fun," Louis points out and Niall looks away from his friend, staring out the kitchen window.

"Well I don't have friends. I never kept in touch with anyone else from high school," Niall admits a little sadly. Not that he even had many friends. He barely even had _one_.

"Well next weekend, you and I can go out and flirt with single guys. Maybe even get you a sugar daddy," Louis teases and Niall laughs.

"I don't need a sugar daddy, I earn more than enough with this job."

Their conversation is cut short when Ed and Mason enter the room and sit at the table, so Niall and Louis hurry up with breakfast before serving the food onto plates.

"What do you kids want to drink?" Niall asks as he grabs glasses and looks at them.

"Milk," Ben replies.

"Orange juice," both Ali and Mason call out.

"Same," Edward mumbles.

Breakfast goes by fast and easy. The kids eat in relative silence and Niall and Louis are both thankful that no arguments break out between them.

"Our game is at eleven, but coach wants us there by ten," Edward informs Niall as he grabs a piece of toast from the plate set in the center of the table.

"Alright," Niall replies, helping Ben with his food. "You boys excited for the game?"

"Yeah! It's our first one this summer," Mason speaks up and Niall smiles over at him, the excitement evident in the child's voice. Edward doesn't give any other emotion besides showing his irritation. "Are you coming to our game, uncle Louis?"

"Of course I am, kiddo," Louis reassures Mason who nods happily and keeps eating.

Once they're done, the kids head off to do what they usually do and Louis and Niall are left cleaning the kitchen.

"Why doesn't your brother hire someone to clean his house? I doubt he cleans the whole thing himself. This place is huge," Niall huffs as he finishes washing the dishes and Louis laughs.

"Well usually he has someone come in at least once a week and that's usually always on Saturdays, but lately he's been having the kids help him clean out to give them some chores for the summer," Louis replies as he sips at yet another cup of tea. "Though he probably should, because you can't cook, clean and watch over the kids all the time."

"I don't mind. I've done this for the last four years."

"Allison!" They hear Mason yell and Niall sighs.

"Stop!" Ali shrieks and suddenly there's running up the stairs.

"Duty calls," Niall tells Louis before he walks off to find the kids.

Niall's heading towards the stairs when it happens. He hears a small whisper and just before he can look up, there's something cold and slimy being poured onto him. He lets out a small gasp and looks down at the ground to see that what's dripping off of him is light blue colored paint. The laughter begins and Niall really wishes he hadn't taken this job.

"You little brats!" Niall screamed at them, trying to keep his head down to keep the paint from getting into his eyes. "Louis! I need your fucking assistance!"

"What's going- Oh, crap," Louis mumbles and races towards the blonde, glaring up at the kids who are still watching from the railing up in the second floor. "Children! Go to your rooms and stay there. I will be talking to your father about this."

"Oops," Ali mumbled and the three headed off to their rooms quickly.

"Ni?" Ben calls as he walks out of the playroom.

"Benji, stay back buddy," Louis tells the two year old who stops walking. "Crap. Okay uh, let's go to the laundry room so you can strip down from this mess."

Niall heads to the laundry room with Louis, leaving a trail of paint as he goes. His head feels heavy with the paint and he's really trying hard to not get angry, but really, this is crazy.

"Where the hell did they even get the paint from?" Niall asks Louis as he works on removing his ruined shoes.

"About a week before you started working here, I helped Harry paint Ben's room and I guess there was some leftover and they must have found it. Honestly though, they've pulled some pretty weird pranks on the past nannies and sometimes I have no idea where they get their things from," Louis replies as he grabs a towel to wipe the excess paint off of the blonde.

Once Niall is down to just his boxers and they removed as much paint from his head as they could, Louis sends the blonde up to shower and Niall sighs as he stands under the hot spray, watching the paint swirl away.

The Styles kids 2 - Niall 0

"Doing okay in there?" Louis asks as he pokes his head into the bathroom and Niall jumps, nearly slipping in the tub.

"You almost killed me, but yeah. Just a little hard to get rid of this paint," Niall replies, hand over his heart and being thankful that the glass in the shower stall wasn't completely see through.

"Alright. I'm going to talk to the kids. Take your time."

"Thanks."

Louis leaves and Niall continues to scrub at his hair. Once he's done with his shower, he quickly changes before heading to his room where he checks his phone and finds a missing call from Harry and two texts from him.

 **To Niall:** call me when you see this

 **To Niall:** Please. H.

Niall rolls his eyes but dials Harry's number and only waits until the second ring for his boss to answer the call.

"You called?" Niall asks as he moves around his room and tidying up a bit. He honestly couldn't believe he'd made this guest room look like his back home.

"Yes. Louis sent me a text explaining what happened. Are you okay?" Harry asks worriedly and Niall smiles softly as he starts to feel all warm inside.

"Yes. I am fine, except you know I took a pretty long shower because I was covered head to toe in blue paint. You've got lovely children."

"I'm sorry." Harry sighs and Niall can picture him running his fingers through his short curls. "I warned them to be good while I was away, but I really have no clue what to do anymore with them. They just don't listen."

"Hey, there was no harm done, yeah? It was just paint," Niall tries to reassure him.

"See, that's the problem. It's just paint now, but if you don't say anything it can be more and more and knowing Edward and Mason, they won't stop until you quit and honestly, I don't want you to quit. I quite enjoy seeing you when I get home from work," Harry says in a soft voice and Niall can't stop his smile from growing bigger as a blush settles over his cheeks.

"Um so, what do you want me to do?"

"Ground them for me, at least until I get back and then I'll talk to them and settle on another punishment. And that means no video games and such and they'll have to help around the house with whatever you and Louis need help with. Don't be soft on them, Niall. Trust me," Harry informs the blonde.

"Alright, no worries. So work is okay?" Niall asks, just wanting to keep talking to Harry because the blonde didn't realize how much he'd miss seeing the curly haired lad.

"It's tiring. Been in and out of meetings and business dinners and I just want to go home and sleep until next year," Harry complains and Niall laughs, looking up when Louis enters his room. "Also, I won't be back tomorrow morning. Could be Sunday morning instead."

"That's fine. I gotta go talk to your children now and inform them of their punishment."

"Alright. Keep me updated if something else happens."

"Will do, bye," Niall hangs up and turns to face a smug looking Louis. "Why did you tell Harry?"

"Because his kids are brats, Neil and if you don't show them that what they did is wrong, then they'll never learn. Anyways, stop changing the conversation and tell me what else you talked about with my brother?"

"Just that I shouldn't be soft on the kids because he doesn't want me to quit," Niall mumbles, hoping that Louis didn't hear him but the older guy makes a surprised face and starts jumping around.

"He so likes you!"

"That doesn't mean that he does, Louis. Maybe he doesn't want me to quit because he's tired of having to look for new nannies all the time. End of discussion. We have some kids that need to hear the bad news."

The two walk out of Niall's room and head down the hall to Edward's where all four kids were, Ben sitting on the ground playing with some toys and Ed and Mason sat on the bed grumpily while Ali laid on it staring at the ceiling.

"Alright brats, sit up and listen," Louis says in a firm voice and they all look at him.

"I talked to your father and unfortunately for you three, you're grounded for the rest of today and tomorrow," Niall informed them, trying not to smirk as the three whined. "That means no video games, no tablets and you'll have to help out with chores. Once your father returns from his trip, he'll decide what other punishment you deserve."

"What?!" Edward yelled angrily. "That's not fair!"

"Then maybe next time you'll think twice before pulling something like that. It's dangerous and rude," Louis scolded.

"How is it dangerous?" Mason asked and he didn't even seem bothered by the punishment.

"Because Niall could have slipped and fallen. Paint is slippery."

"Are we clear on this punishment?" Niall asks the three who nod.

"Good and your first task will be to help clean up the mess downstairs," Louis informs them.

"But it's paint! It's probably dry by now," Ed argued as they stood up and followed Louis out the room.

"Come on, bug. Lets go downstairs," Niall tells Ben as he picks up the two year old who cuddles into him. "You're my sweet boy, right?"

"I good," Ben agrees with a smile.

As Niall walks down the stairs with Ben clinging to him, he finds all three kids scrubbing at the paint and Louis watching over them with a grin.

"They're not your slaves," Niall told Louis as he walks past them head into the kitchen.

"I know, but they kinda deserve this. Anyways, you go and watch a movie with Ben and I'll think of lunch," Louis tells the blonde who was grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

"Oh uh Harry said that he wasn't going to be back tomorrow morning and instead he'd be in on Sunday morning."

"Ugh, more time looking after these brats."

"You don't have to stay, you know? I can stay alone with them," Niall tells him, shifting Ben in his arms a bit.

"Sure you can. After what happened today I'd rather not come back to see you dead on the floor and the house catching on fire."

Niall rolls his eyes and heads to the living room with Ben so they can watch a movie.

By lunchtime, the kids have finished scrubbing as much as they could and now sit at the table with the rest of them. Ali looking like she'll fall asleep on her plate any minute, Mason still looks normal but Ed's clearly even more unhappy than normal. Ben's making his cute noises as he eats on his own this time. Louis had just made grilled cheese sandwiches so Niall didn't have to worry about the two year old.

Afterwards, Ed and Mason do the dishes while Niall cleans the table from any crumbs and Louis cleans Ali and Ben up.

"Alright my kiddies, nap time?" Niall questions Ali and Ben as he leads them towards the stairs holding their hands.

"Sleepy," Ali mumbles as she rubs at her right eye.

Allison is fast asleep as soon as she's on her bed. Niall only smiles fondly and kisses her head before heading towards Ben's nursery where he removes the boy's shoes and sits on the rocking chair with him.

"Are you sleepy, bug?" Niall asks him softly, watching the way Ben curls up into his chest and his eyes flutter close every now and then. Ben's long eyelashes brushed against his cheeks and Niall hummed a little.

"No," Ben mumbles and yawns afterwards which makes Niall laugh.

"Well how about I sing to you, yeah?"

"Jus' a little."

 _"Feeling my hands start shaking. Hearing your voice I'm overjoyed,"_ Niall began to sing softly as he rocked back and forth, watching the way Ben struggled to stay awake. _"I'm sorry but I have no choice, you're only getting better. Maybe you have your reasons. Maybe you're scared you're feeling down. Are you crying when there's no one around? Oh then maybe, maybe if you hold me baby. Let me come over I would tell you secrets nobody knows. I can not overstate it, I will be overjoyed."_

Ben was fast asleep before Niall finished the song so he stood up and placed Ben in his crib. With one final look, Niall turned to leave the room but he jumped when he saw Mason standing there.

"Mason, you scared me, bud," Niall says softly as he walks out of the room with Mason. "Did you need something?"

"Just- You really do care about us," Mason replies with a slight frown as he looks up at Niall who looks down at the child in confusion.

"Of course I do. Why would you think that I didn't?" Niall asks him as they walk into Mason's room.

"Some of the past nannies have been a little mean and you're just nice despite everything that Eddy and I do to you."

"Sure you and Ed are a little... special, but you're all nice kids and I'm really fond of you."

"I kinda like you too."

Niall laughed and pulled Mason into a hug.

*

The next morning Niall was driving them all to Mason and Edward's soccer game. They'd had a quick breakfast and then had raced out the door before they were late. Niall could tell that the two boy's were nervous, but he didn't have time to talk to them when they reached the field because the two ran off to warm up with their team.

"Come on, lets go find a seat," Louis says as he carries Ben out of the SUV.

"This is boring!" Ali whines not even half an hour later, the team still practicing.

"It's going to be a long morning," Louis mumbles and Niall lets out a small sigh.

"Niall!" Someone calls and the blonde turns to see who's calling his name, smiling when he sees Zayn and his girlfriend heading their way.

"Hey guys!" Niall greets them.

"Hey Tommo, didn't think you liked coming to these things," Zayn tells Louis who smirks.

"Figured it was time to start playing the proud uncle role," Louis replies and Zayn and his girlfriend rolls their eyes with a small chuckle while Niall scoffs.

"So how do you guys know each other?" Niall asks them curiously, shifting Ben on his lap.

"I work at Harry's office as his right hand you can say," Zayn replies.

"He's also sometimes my assistant."

"Didn't realize the assistant needed an assistant."

Eventually the boys win the game by one point and Mason runs over to the group with a large smile.

"We won!" Mason shouts excitedly as he jumps on Louis since Niall has Ben in his arms and the older male stumbles back a little with the sudden weight.

"Yeah kiddo! I knew you guys could do it," Louis tells his nephew as he spins him around before setting him back down on the ground.

"Nice job, Mason," Niall congratulates the eleven year old who grins up at him before running off again to catch up with his team.

"How about we all go to lunch to celebrate?" Zayn's girlfriend suggests.

"Sounds good to me," Louis replies as he keeps Ali entertained by dancing with her. Ali giggles at her uncle and Niall smiles at the two while Ben lays his head on Niall's shoulder and makes noises with his mouth.

Niall's phone buzzed in his hand and he looked down to find a text from Harry and that brought an automatic smile to his face.

 **To Niall:** Thank you for the pics and keeping me updated on the game. Really appreciate it.

 **To Niall:** Give my congratulations to the boys. H.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i finally finished pretty little liars and i feel kinda empty right now. i do have mixed feelings about that ending though and who ended up being AD, but i guess it was good.
> 
> narry's coming you guys. it's coming.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Niall looked absolutely angelic in the soft light of the fireplace and it caused a small ache in Harry's heart. An ache of want.

It's Saturday night and the kids are all asleep. Louis is out again and Niall is downstairs in the sitting room reading a book by the fireplace. He's so into his book that he doesn't hear the front door opening nor footsteps approaching the room.

"Niall?" Harry calls out and the blonde jumps, dropping his book on the ground and letting out a small yelp. "Sorry."

"Jesus. You trying to kill me?" Niall asks his boss as he looks over at him before reaching down to grab his book and try to find where he was. "Thought you wouldn't be back until tomorrow morning."

"Sorry and we finished a bit early," Harry explains as he takes a seat next to the blonde. "What are you still doing up?"

"Couldn't sleep, besides, it's not that late. Though I should be tired considering your kids are exhausting to look after."

Harry laughs at that and says, "They are, aren't they? I really have no idea how I've done it on my own. Although I have had plenty of help with the nannies and Lou, but on the days where it's just me, well lets just say that I admire you for doing this. I really do."

Niall blushes a bit and looks down at his book with a small smile. Harry takes the opportunity to look at Niall and trace over his features with his eyes. From his jawline, to his plump soft pink lips and upwards. Niall looked absolutely angelic in the soft light of the fireplace and it caused a small ache in Harry's heart. An ache of want.

"Aren't you tired? You should get some sleep," Niall suddenly says, looking up at Harry and eyes widening a bit when he realizes that his boss had been staring at him the whole time.

"Nah. I like your company, unless you don't want mine then, awkward."

Niall laughed at that and shook his head.

"I do enjoy your company. It's a bit rare, but it's good."

"So tell me Niall Horan, do you really enjoy being a nanny? I mean, I know you've been watching over kids for a few years now, but do you really like it?" Harry asks as he shifts in his seat to face Niall, placing his arm around the back of the couch and his fingertips brushing against Niall's shoulder a bit.

"I do like watching over kids, even the ones who like playing pranks on me. I love kids so really it's no surprise that I want to study to become a teacher," Niall replies as he too shifts a bit to face Harry and to any stranger, this would have looked like a couple having a romantic conversation with the looks they were giving each other.

"Well I wish you all the luck in that."

The two stay talking until late, their conversation coming to an end when Louis comes home stumbling a bit and attempting to stay quiet but both Niall and Harry sigh.

"We should get him upstairs," Harry comments and Niall nods and the two stand up, heading over to Louis who was struggling a bit with locking the front door.

"Harold!" Louis greets his brother loudly with a large smile.

"Let's get you to bed, Lou," Niall says softly, wrapping an arm around Louis' waist.

Heading up the stairs with a drunk Louis is quite difficult, but they somehow manage. Once in Louis' room, Niall undoes the bed and then Harry dumps his younger stepbrother on the bed and Niall and him work on getting his shoes off. Afterwards, they leave and close the door, Harry walking Niall to his room.

"So I guess I'll see you later in the morning," Harry tells the blonde as he checks the time on his phone which reads 3:39 am.

"Yeah. See you later," Niall says as he gives Harry one last smile before heading into his room and closing the door after him.

In the morning Niall wakes up to the sound of someone knocking on his door. The blonde groans as the time on his phone says 7:53 am. He gets out of his bed and goes to open the door, finding a smiling Ali standing there with Ben.

"What are you two doing out of bed? Wait, how did Ben get out of his crib?" Niall questions, watching the kids run inside and jump on the bed, Ben with a bit of difficulty.

"I helped," Ali replies as she gets under the covers, Ben giggling as he copies his sister.

"And why are you here? You know that your father is back from his trip, right?"

"Daddy's back!?"

Niall nods and suddenly Allison is getting off the bed and running out of the room. Ben stays on the bed though and snuggles into the pillows, looking at Niall as if saying _'I'm not going anywhere.'_ Niall just sighs and goes over and gets in next to the two year old.

"So, sleep?" Niall hopes and Ben giggles, pulling the blankets over his head and Niall groans tiredly as he lays down. In the next room over, Niall can hear Harry and Allison talking before there's tiny feet running back to the room and jumping on the bed, nearly landing on Niall.

Harry walks over and stands at the doorway, giving Niall an apologetic look.

"This is what it's like when she's up first," Harry explains, a soft smile on his face as he watches Niall with the two younger kids. "I've also told her many times that she can't be taking Ben out of his crib. They could get hurt or something."

Ali only giggles at the mention of her name and Niall smiles and shakes his head.

*

"There's still a bit of paint there," Niall informs Harry as they stand around in the place of the accident.

"That's fine. I'll hire someone to come and clean this," Harry says, eyes taking in the hints of blue paint around the hardwood floor. "Sorry the kids did this to you. I thought I'd gotten rid of that last bucket of paint, but apparently I didn't."

"It's fine. Anyways, I should get going. Promised Liam I'd be home before lunch."

"Do you need a ride?"

"No, thanks, I don't want to bother."

"I'll drive him!" Louis offers from the kitchen, voice muffled with food and Ali and Ben giggle.

"Gross!" Mason exclaims with a laugh.

"Mason's been doing better," Harry comments, a smile on his face at hearing his son interacting again.

"Yeah, he's been opening up a bit more now and he said that he kinda liked me so that's a plus," Niall replies and Harry chuckles. "I'm gonna go get my things."

Niall heads up the stairs and Harry watches him go, jumping when Louis stands next to him suddenly with that smirk on his face that always makes Harry nervous. The curly haired lad sighs and looks at his brother.

"If you like him so much, do something about it," Louis says, keeping his voice low so the kids and Niall wouldn't hear even though the blonde was now upstairs and the kids were too busy being loud in the kitchen.

"It's not that easy, Louis. I'm his boss and I've got four kids that I need to think about first. Besides, I don't want to start any relationships right now when I'm still working on Ed and Mason right now," Harry argued with his younger brother who rolled his eyes.

"You know very well that Niall could help you out with that."

Before they can keep talking, Niall appears at the top of the stairs with his bag. The blonde walks downstairs and Louis smiles at him.

"Ready to go, lad?" Louis asks him and Niall nods.

"Yeah just, let me go say bye to the kids," Niall told him and headed to the kitchen where he kissed Ben and Ali's heads and waved at the other two boys. Mason smiled shyly at Niall who walked out ready to head home and get some rest for a few hours before starting the work week all over again the next day.

"So how'd it go last night?" Niall asks Louis in the car as the older male drives him home.

"Pretty good. Met up with some old friends and went to my ex girlfriend's party," Louis replied with a small shrug and Niall looked over at him.

"You went to your ex girlfriend's party?"

"Well yeah. I mean, we're not exactly friends, but we had a friendly break up so no hard feelings. I still insist on us going out this weekend. Just you and me having fun and getting you a man."

Niall screwed up his face in distaste but agreed to going out with Louis anyways. Eventually Louis pulls up in front of Niall's house and the blonde lets out a relieved sigh.

"A bit of peace in my own home," Niall says and Louis laughs as he ruffles Niall's hair affectionately.

"Well rest up lad, the boys have soccer practice again tomorrow and I won't be around to help."

"Great. You wanna come in?"

"No thanks. I'm heading to my place today, get some things settled."

Niall nods and gets out of the car with his bag and heads towards the front door.

"How was it?" Angela asks Niall with a small smirk and the blonde groans.

"It was something alright," Niall replies and then goes on to tell his sister in law everything that happened these last few days.

*

The week flies by, thankfully, for Niall. Edward is basically doing the pranks on his own, but Mason will join in on the easier pranks that won't involve them getting in trouble. Like switching the salt for sugar and what not. It was an easy week, especially since the boys had practice for three days and they were still grounded for the paint incident. Once Friday afternoon arrives, Niall sits in the playroom with Ben and Ali waiting for Harry to get home.

"Neil, lad, we're going out tonight," Louis says as he walks into the room and Niall groans. "No groaning, you promised me last week and I'm going to be your wingman."

"Wingman?" Comes another voice from behind Louis, making the short brunette jump in fright.

"Daddy!" Ali and Ben cheer and run up to their father.

"Hello my loves," Harry greets with a grin as he gets down to their level and hugs the two tightly, pressing a kiss to each of their heads before letting them go and watching them run back to their toys. "So what's this about a wingman?"

"Well Neil here has never gone out with a friend, or a date, so I'm taking him out with me in hopes that he'll be my good luck charm and score me a nice hot guy," Louis explains as he looks at his brother who's looking at the two suspiciously, but more Niall with a bit of shock at hearing that the blonde's never been on a date. "You could come with."

"First of all, you know that's not my kind of thing. Never has been. Second of all, I wouldn't have anyone to watch over the kids," Harry explains and Niall doesn't want to admit that he feels a little let down at that.

"Whatever," Louis mumbles. "Neil, you're coming with me and there's no room for excuses, lad. You promised me."

"Alright," Niall gives in with a small sigh but he smiles at Louis, taking a quick peek up at Harry who's looking at him.

Niall's at home now getting ready for his night out with Louis and he's kind of excited if he's being honest. He'd informed Liam and Angela of his plans and they were both pretty happy that Niall was going out for once and having fun.

The blonde's still fixing his hair when there's a knock on the front door and Niall races over to open it, smiling at Louis who's wearing black vans, black skinny jeans and a regular white t-shirt.

"Hi lad, ready to go?" Louis asks him.

"Just need to finish my hair quickly," Niall tells him. "You wanna come in?"

Louis follows the blonde inside the house and towards the bathroom where Niall struggles to do his hair up in the quiff he normally wears.

"You're a fucking mess. Here," Louis says as he slaps Niall's hands away and helps him with his hair.

Niall scoffs but lets Louis finish his hair and once they're done, they step out ready to go.

"I'm leaving!" Niall calls out as he grabs his keys from the hook they're hanging on by the front door.

"Be safe out there," Liam says as he walks out from the hallway and over to Niall and Louis, freezing when he sees the older man. "Louis."

"H-Hi Liam," Louis stutters out a greeting with pink cheeks and the realization dawns on Niall. Liam was the guy that Louis met last week that had a girlfriend. "I uh- I'll bring Niall back safely."

Liam nods stiffly and Niall and Louis leave without another word, the blonde still trying to wrap his head around what happened. It isn't until they're in the car heading downtown that Niall brings it up.

"So Liam," Niall says a little awkwardly and Louis sighs as he grips the steering wheel a little tightly.

"What a small world," Louis replies instead and Niall lets out a small laugh.

They reach a pub where Louis explains that he goes there often because they have some pretty amazing food. Niall's completely sold with that so he follows Louis inside and they go an empty booth towards the back.

"Alright lad, I'll be right back."

Niall nods and watches Louis leave just as his phone vibrates in his pocket. Niall pulls it out and smiles when he sees that he has a text from Harry.

 **From Harry:** how's your night so far?

 **From Niall:** well we just got here, so I'm really hoping things go well otherwise don't be surprised if you don't see your brother again

 **From Harry:** I wouldn't mind, honestly :)

"Texting my brother?" Louis asks as he walks back over with two beers and hands one to Niall. "Our food should be over shortly. I ordered us a basket of fries and some chicken wings."

"Your brother said he wouldn't mind if I killed you," Niall tells Louis who pouts and the blonde laughs.

The first hour or so goes by easy and it's fun. The two just eat and drink, talking about their high school days and Louis talks more about growing up with Harry but he avoids the topic of Gemma all together which Niall respects. It's definitely not easy to talk about your dead sister.

The second hour it's where it gets a little out of control. Louis' already on his way to being drunk while Niall's only had two beers. He's not used to drinking so he doesn't want to risk anything. Louis leaves for a few minutes and Niall sees him flirting with a guy way taller than Louis and definitely older. As Niall sits alone at their table playing on his phone, a waiter walks up to him with a drink and places it on the table.

"Um I didn't order this," Niall tells him.

"The guy over there did," responds the waiter as he points at a guy of around Harry's height and age sitting at the bar drinking his own drink and looking over at Niall who gives him a small awkward smile. Niall didn't know how to flirt and this whole situation of the guy ordering a drink for him has him feeling a little uncomfortable.

Niall drinks the strawberry daiquiri with a bit of a grimace but he doesn't want to be rude. Louis walks back over with a new drink and a large smile and sits down next to Niall.

"Who was the guy?" Niall asks his friend who giggles and leans into the blonde.

"Name's Evan and he's thirty and an accountant. Nice guy, big everything if you get what I mean," Louis told Niall who shook his head with a small laugh. "The room is spinning. Why is it spinning?"

"You're such a lightweight," Niall says as he shoves his friend lightly, but Louis only clings to the blonde.

"You really need to get laid. By my brother preferably."

Niall chokes on his drink, cheeks burning but he doesn't disagree.

It's nearly by hour four that Niall decides that enough is enough. Louis had already disappeared with Evan to the bathroom for more than ten minutes and he couldn't even walk straight anymore. Niall thankfully hadn't had another drink since that strawberry one so he grabs Louis' car keys and decides to call it a night.

"Where are we goin'?" Louis slurs, his arm around Niall's shoulders as they walk towards Louis' car.

"Going home," Niall explains.

"Good cause, like I'm tired. And drunk."

"No duh."

The drive to Harry's is filled with Louis snoring and Niall has no idea how the hell he's going to get Louis inside, but thankfully the first floor lights are on so Niall shoots Harry a quick text and soon the curly haired lad is walking out of the house wearing a bathroom.

"Does he always get like this?" Niall asks Harry as he helps him take Louis up to his room.

"Sometimes. It's mostly when he's feeling frustrated or upset about something," Harry replies. "Hope he wasn't too much trouble."

"No. I had fun, up until I had to drag his drunk ass out of the pub."

Harry chuckles and they enter Louis' room, careful to not make a lot of noise and wake up the kids.

"I should get going," Niall says once they leave Louis' room after putting the trash can nearby and removing his shoes and jeans.

"You should stay. I mean it's late and you're probably tired and I'm sure you drank a bit," Harry suggests a little nervously as he looks at Niall. "You can borrow something of mine if you'd like."

"Okay."

Harry smiles and leads the blonde to the master suite, heading to his dresser where he pulls out an old t-shirt and some joggers from the bottom drawer. He hands them over to Niall who thanks him quietly and heads to the bathroom in the hall to change. Once he's out, Harry meets him in the hallway and the two kind of just stare at each other not knowing what to say.

"Good night, Harry," Niall eventually says, inching closer to the guest room door.

"Night Niall," Harry responds with a soft smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i got a paper cut today and my little sister ran off to get me a band-aid and she gave me one of her Frozen band-aids that she doesn't share with anyone and it made me tear up a bit because kids are so damn special


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "...Take him out on a date, even as friends just so the two of you can get to know each other better. Go slow," Anne suggests and Louis nods at Harry with a smile.

Niall's been officially working for Harry for a month now and it's been a month with a lot of ups and downs. Edward is still playing his pranks which Niall would like to know where he gets so mnay ideas from. Mason joins sometimes, but he's been more open with Niall and they even had a whole conversation on soccer once. Mason was easy to crack, but Niall has no idea how in the world to get through to Edward. He wants to help because Edward and Harry's relationship is still bad and Niall hates seeing the man so miserable.

As for Niall's growing feelings for Harry, well it's getting kinda hard to be around him now because Niall's always a blushing stuttering mess.

"Niall, can I talk to you?" Harry says one Monday afternoon when he gets home from work and heads towards his office without waiting for the blonde who looked at Louis with a frown and Louis shrugged.

"You needed me?" Niall asks a little nervously as he steps into Harry's office, millions of thoughts racing through his head including the thought of being fired.

"Yes. Take a seat," Harry tells him and Niall sits in front of Harry, waiting for the man to speak up. "Ben's birthday is coming up in a few days and my parents are flying in for a few days. They don't stay here since they have their own place in the city, but they'll be here often with the kids and it'll depend if my mom wants to take them out or not, but I'd still like for you to come in anyways."

"Yeah, that's fine. So when exactly are they coming?"

"They'll be here Friday afternoon, so you might not even get to meet them that day. They're nice people and my mom's been wanting to meet you for awhile now."

"Me?"

"Yeah uh Louis made a joke about you being my boyfriend or something," Harry explained a little nervously, cheeks a little red and Niall looks down at the table with his own blush taking over.

"It wasn't a joke, Harold," came Louis' voice as he enters the office and takes the other seat next to Niall. "I literally told mom that you two were dating because I'm sick tired of you two pretending that you don't have feelings for each other."

"Louis!" Both Niall and Harry shout incredulously and Louis only shrugs.

"You guys just need a little push and I am more than glad to help my two stupid best friends."

Niall glared at his older friend who only smiled at him and Harry let out a long irritated sigh.

"How about you two go out and have a nice dinner tonight and I'll watch after the little brats- I mean angels."

"How about you get out of my office before I staple your mouth shut," Harry threatened his brother who nodded and quickly left. "I'm sorry about him."

"I'm used to hearing him say stuff like that," Niall reassures Harry, but he was unable to meet his gaze. "If you don't need me, I'll get going."

Niall stood up, ready to leave the office when Harry called him back.

"Actually, can I ask you something?"

"You just did, but sure."

Harry laughs at that and says, "Nevermind. Have a nice night, Niall."

"You too."

Niall walks out of Harry's office feeling a bit disappointed.

*

It's Friday shortly after lunch and Niall's cleaning the kitchen while Ben naps, Ali watches a movie and the other two are off with some friends. Niall's startled when the doorbell goes off and he goes over to open the door, coming face to face with a man who looks quite a bit like Louis and a woman with dark hair and eyes that remind her of Harry. Well really, all of her reminds him of Harry.

"Um hi," Niall greets them with a smile.

"Oh you must be Niall!" The woman says with a large smile as she steps forward and hugs the shocked blonde and the man laughs.

"Yes, I am Niall. And you must be Harry's parents. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Anne," the woman says when she steps back, a kind smile on her face.

"And I'm Richard," the man speaks, blue eyes sparkling with happiness.

Niall steps aside to let them in, shooting Louis and Harry a quick text telling them that their parents were home earlier than planned.

"Grandma! Grandpa!" Allison cries out as she runs down the hall towards them with her arms open wide and Richard leans down a bit to scoop her up.

"Hi sweetie! We've missed you," Anne says as she presses a kiss to Ali's cheek.

"Where are the boys?" Richard asks Niall.

"Uh Ben is taking a nap upstairs and Ed and Mason are out at a friend's house," Niall explains, Ben making soft whimpering sounds through the monitor. "Uh I'll be right back."

"Of course dear," Anne tells him as her and her husband sit on the couch with Ali who talks to them a million words a minute as Niall begins to run up the stairs.

The blonde nanny enters Ben's room and coos at the two year old who's sitting up in his crib with big fat tears running down his cheeks.

"Oh bug, what's wrong?" Niall asks as he picks up the two year old and rocks him gently, rubbing his back. "Are you still sleepy? Your daddy told me you didn't sleep very well last night."

"Sleepy," Ben hiccups out, rubbing at his eyes with both fists and Niall smiled fondly at him.

"Well there's two people waiting downstairs to see you."

"Eddy and Masey?"

Niall laughed and shook his head, beginning to walk out of the room with Ben throwing out guesses.

"You're cute, but no it's not your daddy and uncle Louis," Niall tells him and then walks into the living room. "Look, bug."

Ben turns around and gasps excitedly.

"Grandma! Grandpa!" Ben shouts and Ali pouts as all the attention goes to her baby brother.

"Hi my love! You were taking a nap?" Anne coos as she goes over to take Ben from Niall's arms and smoothers him with kisses.

"Ni!" Allison whines as she goes up to her nanny and throws her arms up which makes Niall chuckle and pick her up. "I'm hungry."

"You want some goldfish? Or apple slices?" Niall lists off as he walks towards the kitchen with her resting on his hip and her hand splaying with Niall's hair, messing it up and tugging at it.

"With peanut butter." She grins and Niall chuckles.

The front door opens once Niall gets Ali's apple slices onto a plate and a small amount of peanut butter in the center. Niall sits next to Allison who ignores her father and uncle who are greeting their parents in favor of her apple.

"Hey," Harry greets as he walks in with a smile. "Hi my princess, what are you eating?"

"Apples, daddy!" Ali tells him with a large grin, peanut butter all over her lips and Niall smiles at her fondly.

"Didn't realize my parents would get here this early," Harry tells Niall a bit apologetically as he steals and apple slice from Allison who pouts.

"It's fine. Was quite surprised but they're lovely people," Niall replies with a smile as he looks at Harry who smiles back at him softly.

The two are pulled out of their trance when Anne walks in, startling the two who quickly turn to act as normal as they can. Niall's cleaning the peanut butter off of Ali's face and Harry is caught staring at the blonde tending to his daughter and Anne gives her son a knowing look.

"How was the drive?" Harry asks his mother, tearing his gaze away from the scene in front of him where Ali was smiling up at Niall and telling him something in a hushed whisper.

"It was pretty good. We didn't hit any traffic on the way though your father did take a wrong turn once or twice even though we've been driving down here for years," Anne says and rolls her eyes which causes Harry to laugh. "I know we're here earlier than planned, but we really couldn't wait any longer. Your father finished early with a meeting and we decided to leave as soon as we could."

"It's fine mom. Would have been nice to be here when you guys got here."

"It's fine love. So Niall, you like working here?"

"Yeah, I do. I love kids and I've been doing this for a few years, but I don't think I've ever had kids like these," Niall replies as he looks up at Anne with a smile. "They're good kids, even with all the pranks."

"Ed and Mason haven't changed one bit, but I have faith in you," Anne tells Niall and Harry nods in agreement with his mother. He really hopes that Niall can help him out with those two.

Half an hour later, Niall is getting ready to leave when Louis walks up to him with a bit of a nervous smile.

"You okay?" Niall asks him as he tucks his phone into his back pocket.

"H-Has Liam asked about me?" Louis asks with a slight nervous stutter and the question catches Niall a bit of guard because since that day, they haven't really talked about the situation at all. "I-I mean I know he's got Angela and I don't mean to come between them, but it's just-"

"Hey, don't worry. I get it, yeah? He hasn't even mentioned that you guys met, let alone asked me about anything. I tried talking to him about it, but he changes topic really quick or just ignores me. I'm sorry, Lou."

"No, it's fine. So I guess I'll see you Monday?"

"No. I have the day off. Your parents want to take the kids out and honestly I can use a break," Niall replies with a roll of his eyes and Louis laughs a little. "Have a nice weekend, Tommo."

"You two, Neil."

Once Niall is gone, Louis heads back into the family room where his parents, brother and the kids are.

~

"Tell me about Niall," Anne tells her son as she helps him with dinner.

"What do you want to know? I mean, I don't really know much about him, honestly," Harry replies with a small shrug, focused on stirring the pasta for the chicken Alfredo they were making.

"Well for one, he's watching over your kids and two, I know how much you like him. You must know something about him."

"Well he's eighteen and he lives with his older brother and his wife. He starts college in the fall and he's really patient with the kids, even after everything that Ed and Mason have put him through. Though Mason's been so different from a month ago. He talks to me more and he's not following Edward like a lost puppy."

"Having the person care for your kids so much is important, why don't you ask him out? How about tomorrow for dinner? Your father and I will love to spend some time with the kids and we'll drag Louis along, I know he wants you to ask Niall out."

"Harold, listen to mom! Please!" Louis begs as he walks into the kitchen and Anne laughs as she wraps an arm around Louis. "Risk it all, Harry. You look at him like he's the brightest star in the sky and it's kinda creepy when you do."

Anne shakes her head and Harry blushes as he turns to glare at his younger brother.

"I just don't want to involve the kids in this in case it didn't work out," Harry says with a defeated sigh as he turns off the stove once the pasta was done.

"Then don't tell them anything until you've got a more solid relationship with Niall. Take him out on a date, even as friends just so the two of you can get to know each other better. Go slow," Anne suggests and Louis nods at Harry with a smile.

"So tomorrow?"

"Yes!" Both Louis and Anne shout in exasperation and Harry pouts.

"Give me an hour to think about it."

Louis groans but nods anyway and goes to help out as well.

*

Niall's in his room reading the first of the Harry Potter books for the millionth time when his phone goes off. He sighs and places a bookmark before reaching over to his nightstand to grab his phone.

"Hello?" Niall answers.

"Niall, it's me, Harry," that familiar deep voice answers him and Niall can't help the warm feeling that spreads through him.

"Oh, hey Harry, what's up?"

"I uh was wondering if um you're not uh busy tomorrow evening?" Harry asks nervously and Niall can hear Louis groaning in the background which would have made him laugh had the question not caught him so off guard.

"Oh I um, I'm not. Have something in mind?" Niall cringes because this whole thing is new to him. No one's ever asked him out and he's feeling beyond awkward at the moment.

"How about dinner? Like it doesn't have to be a date if you don't want too, I just really want to get to know you better and I'd like for it to be a date, but it's up to you! No pressure though."

"I'd like that date," Niall admits a little quietly and Harry lets out a small sigh of relief that makes NIall giggle a bit.

"Good! Um I'll pick you up tomorrow at seven? Sounds good?"

"Sounds great. Can't wait."

"Me either. I'll see you tomorrow, Ni. Have a good night."

"Good night, Harry," Niall says and hangs up, a smile on his face and he stays staring at his screen until it fades to black.

"Why so happy?" Angela asks from the doorway, a hand on her five month bump and a tired smile on her pale face.

"Um I'm going on a date," Niall tells her and she gasps loudly in excitement before crossing the room and sitting next to the blonde.

"What?! With who? Spill the details!" Angela exclaimed happily and Niall blushes and shook his head fondly at her.

"With Harry, my boss."

"Oh my gosh! Yes! This is so exciting, Niall. How are you feeling?"

"Pretty nervous, but excited. Also a little scared. I mean, the last thing I would want is for the kids to get hurt or have them lose their trust in me for dating their father. Or get their hopes up. It's complicated," Niall tells her honestly and she nods in understanding. "I mean, assuming we'd go on more than one date. I'm already jumping ahead and we haven't even gone out yet."

"I'm sure you will and I'm sure that you two will last and the kids will accept your relationship once they see how happy you two are with each other. But you're right, lets take this one step at a time," she says softly as she reaches over to rub Niall's arm gently.

"How are you today?" Niall asks her a bit worriedly. She's been having a tougher time lately and it scares Niall to see her so weak some days.

"It's been a better day. Just been tired, but the baby's been fine today," Angela reassured him with a smile and Niall nodded.

"Any names picked out for the princess?"

Angela and Liam had found out that they were having a girl about a week ago and they were all happy with the news. Money wasn't as tight anymore with Niall's job and he took care of some bills, but Liam still worked as hard.

"Amor, I don't want you to worry about so much anymore. I know you've had it rough all these years, but you're starting college in over a month and I want you to focus on that and saving up money for yourself. I know you want to help your brother out basically to repay him for taking you in and everything, but you're only eighteen and at your age you should have different things to worry about like going on dates or hanging out with friends. Have fun, be young," Angela tells him in a soft loving voice as she brushes back Niall's blonde fringe, looking at him with a motherly look that made Niall's chest ache because his own mother never cared for him the way Angela does and he knows that she'll be an excellent mother.

"I know, but I want too because you're my family and family is meant to help each other out and be there for one another. And I don't need to go out with my friends every weekend when I have my own future to work for. I honestly don't mind working because it means a lot for me to do so," Niall explains and he watches as her eyes fill up with tears before she pulls him into a hug.

"I love you so much, Ni."

"I love you too."

The next day, Liam is home for once on a Saturday and when Niall asks, Liam replies with that he's not working on Saturdays anymore to be with his family. There's a knock on the front door, however, after they've eaten lunch and Niall goes to open the door, not surprised to find Louis standing there with a large grin.

"Yes?" Niall asks him a little worriedly.

"I'm taking you shopping, Neil. You need to look amazing for tonight," Louis explains as he steps into the house and the two stand around in the small entrance that leads straight into the kitchen on your right or the living room straight ahead.

"Niall, who's at the door, love?" Angela asks as she walks over, smiling at Louis. "Hello dear. I'm Angela."

"I'm Louis, a friend of Neil's and his boss' brother. It's a pleasure to meet you. Niall's talked so much about you," Louis tells her with a smile as he extends his hand out for her to shake. Niall rolls his eyes at Louis' manners because when has he ever been this nice?

"Well it's nice to meet you too and I hope they've all been good things." She jokes as she shakes Louis' hand.

"Absolutely. And I must assume that you know about his date tonight with my brother? Hope you don't mind if I steal him from you for a bit."

"Not at all. Niall, amor, go and have fun. Relax before tonight."

"Angela, have you seen my- Oh, hi Louis," Liam greets Louis a little nervously, eyes darting between him and his fiancée who was still smiling at the brunette man with the feathery soft hair.

"H-Hi Liam," Louis stuttered out, a slight blush dusting over his cheeks since Liam was shirtless and Niall could already feel the awkward tension in the air.

"Louis and I were just leaving. I'll be back later!" Niall tells them and quickly grabs Louis' hand and leads him out the door without getting a response from his brother and sister in law. "That was awkward."

"And I feel bad for liking your brother as much as I do when Angela is absolutely gorgeous and having his kid. Oh god, I'm a bad person!" Louis cries out dramatically once they're in his car and Niall groans.

"You can't help who you like, Louis and it's not like she knows or will know. Now can we go and get this shopping thing over with? Knowing you, I'll probably end up over dressed. Do you know where Harry's taking me?" Niall asks his friend who pretends to zip and lock his lips before throwing the imaginary key out the window as he began to drive. "What an ass."

"I do have a great bum, don't I?"

"Gross."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Narry are going on a date, I feel like a proud mom next chapter is their date


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two already look at each other like they've been in love with each other for years.

It's seven and Niall wants to throw up with how nervous he is. Louis had just left after helping him with his hair and giving him the final verdict on his outfit and according to Louis, he looked fuckable.

"Amor, Harry's car just pulled up and knowing your brother, he's probably been saving his overprotective big brother speech since forever so I'd hurry it up," Angela tells Niall as she walks into his room with a smile. "You look great, love. Have fun tonight and don't worry about anything else other than Harry and yourself. This is about the two of you getting to know each other better and trying to form a solid foundation first."

"Yeah, okay," Niall mumbles out and jumps as the doorbell goes off. "I'm so nervous."

"It's normal, now come on."

Angela loops her arm through Niall's and leads him out of his room and down the hall towards the front door where Liam is introducing himself to Harry.

"I hope you take care of my baby brother," Liam begins to say and he tries to look tough which he probably succeeds when Harry looks at him with slightly wide eyes, but Angela and Niall both know he's a big teddy bear and wouldn't dare hurt anyone. "You hurt him in any way shape or form and you'll get to know who I am, understood?"

"Yes, perfectly clear," Harry tells Liam with slight nod and small smile of reassurance.

"You're embarrassing me, Liam," Niall grumbles as he walks past his brother to go stand beside Harry who looks at the blonde as if he were the only person in the room which makes Angela smile and Liam relax a bit.

"What kind of brother would I be if I didn't embarrass you. Now be good and I don't want you back too late. Have fun," Liam tells his brother who rolls his eyes, a slight blush on his cheeks that Harry notices from how long he's been staring at the blonde. He catches the exact moment when Niall's cheeks go from pale to a light pink.

Niall and Harry leave the house and the curly haired lad goes over to open the passenger door for Niall who thanks him quietly and gets in.

"You look great. I mean, you always do, but you look amazing tonight," Harry says nervously as he looks over at Niall before driving down the road.

"Um thanks. Y-You look pretty great yourself, too," Niall stutters out and mentally face palms himself because boy is this awkward. "So uh, where are we going? I mean, if I may know."

"My friend Ed owns this pizza place and he sings there often and I thought it'd be a nice date to have my friend serenade us while we eat."

"I like that, sounds fun," Niall tells him with a smile though he still felt pretty nervous, his hands resting on his lap and slightly sweaty.

"Your brother seems nice," Harry comments a few minutes later just wanting to break the awkward silence that had settled.

"He is, so don't feel intimidated by him or anything. He's a big softy and I love him a lot. I've been so thankful to have someone like him as my brother, he means the whole world to me," Niall replies with a wide smile as he looks out the window.

"He's done a great job raising you. You're a great person, Niall."

Niall blushes yet again and says a quiet thanks.

They reach Ed's Pizza Place without anymore conversations and the two get out of the car. The restaurant is in one of those plaza areas tucked in between a local book shop and a children's clothing store.

"Nice place," Niall comments as they step inside, Harry holding the door open for the blonde. "How long has he had this?"

"About three or four years now. It's become rather popular and he has karaoke Friday's," Harry comments with a slight roll of his eyes and Niall looks surprised. "Louis usually comes on Fridays."

"Does Louis sing?"

"Believe it or not."

Niall laughs at that and the two are lead to a table near the stage by the hostess who hands them the menus and then walks off. The two sit across from each other and looked over their menus.

"Harold! Lad!" A male voice greeted and Niall looked up to see a man with ginger hair, a large smile and arm filled with tattoos heading their way.

"Ed," Harry greets as he stands up to hug the ginger who hugs him back with a loud laugh.

"Your brother called me to say you were coming here on a date and well I couldn't believe it. Had to come and see it with my own very eyes," Ed says teasingly as he pulls back from Harry and smiles over at Niall who's smiling wide and holding in his giggles.

"Of course Louis couldn't keep his big mouth shut. Ed, this is Niall. Ni, this is my good friend Ed, the one I was telling you about," Harry tells Niall who scoots out of his seat to greet Ed.

"Hope he was telling you good things about me, lad," Ed jokes and Niall laughs as the two shake hands. "It's nice to meet you and I hope you enjoy the food more than being with Harry. He can be a bit boring sometimes."

"Hey!" Harry pouted.

"I'm sure the food will be great," Niall jokes back and Harry huffs, but there's a large smile on his face and he's staring at Niall fondly. "And the date as well."

Niall looks over at Harry and smiles at him, Ed simply staring between the two wondering why the hell its only their first date. The two already look at each other like they've been in love with each other for years.

"Well order anything you boys want, it's on the house," Ed tells them softly and the two break out of their trance.

"No Ed, you don't have too," Harry shakes his head but Ed insists so Harry gives in.

"Alright, now you two pick out what you want and I'll have a waiter with you shortly so you can order. Have fun boys."

Ed walks away and Niall and Harry sit back down and scan over their menus. They end up ordering a large pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and stuffed cheese breadsticks. The waiter turns up with their drinks about a minute after they order and she smiles at the pair before walking off.

"So how long have you known Ed?" Niall asks Harry as he plays with the straw in his iced tea.

"We went to high school together. We were pretty close and I'm actually owner to a very small part of this place," Harry tells Niall whose eyes widen a bit.

"Really? Why didn't you tell me anything?"

"Didn't want to brag, but yeah. Ed and I had this idea during our senior year of high school of putting a restaurant and well he came up to me a few years back with the idea again and I said that I'd help and here it is."

"Can I ask you something?" Niall asks him after a few seconds of silence, looking up from his drink to look at Harry who'd been staring at him.

"Sure. What is it?"

"Why are you so interested in me? Like, I mean, I'm flattered because no one's ever liked me enough to ask me out on a date, but you're so different from me. I'm sure there must be someone much prettier and way more in your league than me."

"Ever since that day we bumped into each other at my office, I remember staring into your eyes and just thinking that they were the most beautiful shade of blue I'd ever seen. And as I got to see you every day and began to know you better, I realized that I was feeling something that I hadn't felt in years," Harry starts to explain as he reaches across the table to grab Niall's left hand. "I didn't want to admit it because I was scared, I still am, but I'm falling so hard for you Niall."

"I'm scared too, but I guess that's a feeling that comes with liking someone," Niall admits softly as he gives Harry's hand a small squeeze.

Their food arrives a few minutes later and they eat as they discuss their hobbies and favorite singers.

"Alright, hope everyone is having a good time!" Ed says into the microphone up on the small stage as he sits on a stool with his guitar. "Tonight I've got a dear friend of mine here on a date with a very lovely lad and I wish them all the luck on their date and hope that my friend doesn't ruin it with his ugly jokes." Niall laughs along with the people sitting at the tables while Harry sits pouting. "This song goes out to them and I hope they enjoy their night. This song I wrote a few days ago so it's new, but hopefully you'll enjoy it. This is called Kiss Me."

Ed starts strumming his guitar and he closes his eyes for the first few lines and Niall finds himself really enjoying the sound of Ed's soothing voice.

 _"Kiss me like you wanna be loved. You wanna be loved. You wanna be loved. This feels like falling in love. Falling in love. We're falling in love,"_ Ed sang, eyes looking over at the general direction where Niall and Harry were seated and he smiles.

The song ended a few minutes later and everyone clapped and cheered for Ed who smiled and started to talk about his next song.

"Thanks for bringing me here," Niall tells Harry as they walk out of the restaurant an hour later, walking close together but still with a bit of space between them.

"You had fun, then?" Harry asks in a hopeful tone as they stand by the passenger side of Harry's car.

"I really did. The food was great and Ed's a great singer."

"Well maybe next time we can come on a Friday and do a little karaoke," Harry suggests and Niall laughs and shakes his head.

"Mm, I don't think so. I'm a terrible singer and I'd probably cause your friend to lose his clients."

"You're probably lying. I'm sure you sing great."

"Well maybe you'll just have to find out and see for yourself," Niall speaks a little softly as he stares up at Harry with a bit of a flirty smile.

"So you're saying that you'll go out with me again?" Harry asks him a bit hesitantly, really hoping he didn't interpret Niall wrong and get his hopes crushed.

"Definitely. I had my doubts, but I definitely had a great first date. I can't thank you enough for doing this and I'm really glad I said yes."

"And I'm glad that my mom and Louis managed to push me enough to ask you out because I was too scared to do so, but now I realize that I should have done this a lot sooner."

Niall smiles and Harry opens the car door for him. The drive back to Niall's place is filled with talking, unlike earlier when they didn't have much to talk about. Now they're more comfortable around each other and they're really glad they have a lot in common yet have enough differences to keep things interesting. Soon though, Harry is pulling up in front of Niall's house where the lights are still on and the blonde groans quietly because he knows what's waiting for him. He was hoping his brother and Angela would be asleep already, but it wasn't even 9 pm yet.

"So next date, how about Monday for breakfast? I mean, unless you already have plans since it's your day off and all then in that case please don't cancel them for me. I just really want to see you again and I don't think I can wait until Tuesday morning," Harry rambles on and Niall giggles in amusement.

"Monday morning sounds great, but don't you have work?" Niall questions him with an eyebrow raised. "Or you could be spending it with your family instead."

"I don't have to be in at work until after lunch time and I'll see my parents all week. So breakfast?"

"Breakfast it is. I'll see you Monday then," Niall says as he removes his seatbelt and gives Harry one final smile before getting out of his car and heading up to his front door.

Harry drove off once the blonde was safely inside and with a large smile on his face.

When Niall walked into his house, he found Angela and Liam watching a movie in the living room. They both looked up when the blonde went to go walk past them, but Angela called him back.

"Where are you going? Come back here and tell us how your date went!" Angela shouts after him and Liam groans and complains about her being too loud.

"Do I have to punch him?" Liam asks his brother who walks back into the living room and sits on the other couch that was unoccupied by his brother and sister in law.

"No, I had a great time. He's really nice and caring, the only bad thing was how awkward it was at first," Niall tells them honestly and Angela giggles and coos as she leans into Liam's side. "We're going out again on Monday."

"Oh my gosh! This is so exciting!" Angela exclaims and she looks up at Liam who looks a little worried but also a bit like a proud dad. "Are you okay, Liam?"

"Yeah just, hard to believe that my boy is growing up. I still remember the day mom and dad brought him home from the hospital and now look at him," Liam says softly with a bit of a nostalgic tone to his voice that makes Niall rolls his eyes but feel warm and happy at the same time. "I'm glad you're happy and I hope that it stays this way. Harry seems like a nice lad, hope he doesn't ruin this."

"I know he won't," Niall reassures his brother.

*

"How was it?" Louis asks as he follows his brother into his office after he greeted their parents and the kids.

"Pretty great. We're going out again on Monday morning," Harry replies with a smile as he looks up at his brother who cheers excitedly.

"See! I told you everything would go great! You're not going to tell the kids though, right?" Louis asks as he sits on the chair in front of Harry's desk.

"No, not right now at least. Both Niall and I agree to keep things between us and just see where things go. We're trying to form something more solid first."

"Fair enough. You might be my brother, but Niall's become my best friend and I don't want you hurting him, yeah? Treat him right because he really deserves it."

"I know and I promise to not let him down. Niall's- Niall's special and ever since you know, I haven't felt this excited and scared about a possible new relationship. I just don't want to risk the kids getting hurt, you know? And I've still got that issue with Edward to solve, not so much Mason since he's been doing a lot better now."

"Yeah he has, Niall's been working hard with him and getting him to open up more and I have faith that he'll get through to Edward soon."

Harry checks his email while Louis sits there scrolling through his phone, sending Niall a quick text.

"Are you interested in anyone? You keep annoying me about my crush on Niall, but I don't know if you like anyone," Harry asks his brother with a smirk as he shuts off his computer to call it a night.

"Um well, there is someone, but he's taken and I want to forget any feelings I have towards him," Louis replies with a frown as he puts his phone down on the desk and chews on his bottom lip thoughtfully.

"Do I know who he is? Is it Zayn?" Harry guesses and Louis shakes his head. "Is it Jared from public relations?"

"No, it's Niall's brother, Liam. And like I said, I don't want to have any feelings for him because he's been with Angela for years and they're having a baby and I don't want to come between them. That's the last thing I would want," Louis explains a little sadly and Harry gives his brother a small reassuring smile.

"Hey, don't sweat it. I'm sure the right person will come around soon and you won't even remember you even liked Liam. Does Niall know?"

"Yeah."

*

Monday morning arrives and Niall isn't as nervous as the other night. Instead he gets ready with ease and says goodbye to Angela when Harry arrives and meets him on the small porch with a large smile.

"Morning," Harry greets the blonde as he opes the passenger door for him, both smiling wide and looking into each other's eyes.

"Morning," Niall replies and gets in the car.

Harry gets in the car and then drives off to wherever he has planned that they go eat breakfast.

"How was the rest of your weekend?" Harry asks the blonde about a minute later, the radio playing at a low comfortable volume so the two can talk at a normal tone.

"Pretty good, though it was weird not waking up early this morning. I've gotten so used to it that I woke up thinking I'd be late for work," Niall tells Harry who laughs.

"The kids certainly missed you this morning and Ben asked me about ten times when you'd be back."

"I miss them. Even Edward."

"Pretty sure he does too, he's just acting like he isn't but I caught him looking around this morning when he walked down for breakfast."

Niall laughs at that and focuses on the drive. They head to a local diner for breakfast where the owner, a sweet lady probably in her early fifties greets Harry with a large hug and a kiss to his cheek.

"Oh Harry, dear, it's been awhile!" She says as she pulls away from him.

"It has, hasn't it Mrs Jenkins?" Harry tells her with a smile. "This is Niall, my lovely date."

"Oh! Well it's so nice to meet you, Niall. Hope you enjoy your time with Harry, he's a lovely guy," she says as she looks at the blonde with a warm smile.

"I'm sure I will, Harry's fun to be around," Niall tells her, looking up at Harry briefly.

Mrs Jenkins leads them to a booth and they sit across from each other and she hands them the menus before walking off.

"I feel like you know every corner of the city. I'd never heard of Ed's Pizza Place and I'd never seen this diner either," Niall comments as his eyes scan over the breakfast options and Harry laughs a little.

"I'm more of a support your local stores kinda guy, but Mrs Jenkins and my mom go way back. We used to be neighbors and she's basically seen us all grow up and she helped out a lot after my sister and after Ben and Ali's mom left," Harry explains and Niall nods.

"And the kids haven't seen their mother since she left?"

"No. It's like she's completely dropped off the face of the earth. I bumped into her sister a few weeks back and she asked me about the kids and I showed her pictures, but she wouldn't say if Hanna was okay or not."

"Do they miss her?"

"Allison did at first, Ben doesn't even remember her anymore and it's for the best."

A waiter arrives a minute later and takes their order and once he leaves, Harry and Niall settle into an easy conversation that doesn't have to do with the kids or their families; just about them and nothing else.

"Thanks for giving me, _us_ a chance to do this. It really means a lot to me," Harry says as the two walk around a park before heading their separate ways. Their hands brush against each other every few seconds until Niall gathers the courage to slip his hand into Harry's, their fingers locking together. Harry smiles as he looks at Niall and gives his hand a small squeeze.

"I'm glad I did this. You're a great guy and I've had a great time," Niall admits with a small blush.

"So you'll agree on more dates?"

"I agree on all the dates you want."

"Good," Harry says with a soft smile as the two keep walking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all this was sucky, but Shawn's new song had me crying my eyes out at all three times that I listened to it last night and I'm so proud of my baby


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry crosses the room and goes over to hug the blonde who hugs him back and closes his eyes, inhaling Harry's familiar expensive cologne.

It's Tuesday and Niall's first day back on the job since his first date with Harry and he's a bit curious to see how things will be now since the kids don't and can't know. Not yet at least. Niall just wasn't sure how they'd even approach something like this to the kids, one of which hated him and another was still a little iffy around him. Ben would probably be too young to understand and Niall doesn't know how Allison would react since she can be a bit unpredictable sometimes.

"Morning," Harry greets the blonde when he opens the front door and Niall smiles at him a little shyly, unsure of what or how to act.

"Morning," Niall greets back a little quietly.

Harry surprises the blonde by pulling him into a tight hug that Niall gladly returns and relaxes into. They pull away after a few seconds and Niall blushes as he walks past Harry.

"Neil, I've missed you!" Louis greets his friend as he goes over to hug the blonde tightly and Niall laughs as he hugs him back. "Mondays are not the same without you and also, you need to tell me your version of what happened. Did you like it? Harry can be pretty boring, so don't be afraid to tell me that you were bored."

"Can everyone stop saying I'm boring?" Harry begged and Louis and Niall both laughed. "You guys are mean."

"Well if it's of any consolation, I had fun with you," Niall tells Harry who smiles again and Louis rolls his eyes.

"You guys are gross. But anyways, Harold, we gotta go or you'll be late for that meeting with dad and the other big guys at work."

"Right. Okay, uh so my mom might come over though I doubt it because I think she said she'd be catching up with some old friends. Either way, the kids don't have anything important to do though Ed and I had another fight last night so he might be in an even worse mood," Harry warned the blonde who nodded and smiled a bit sadly at him. Niall could see how much that fight with Edward hurt Harry. They always did and Niall was in desparate need of getting through to Edward somehow. "I'll see you later. Call me if anything happens."

"Yes, now go," Niall told him slightly amused and he tried not to let out a squeak of surprise when Harry hugged him again quickly before he left.

The front door closed and Niall let out a sigh as he looked for something to do while the kids woke up.

*

"Niall!" Ben cried, tears rolling down his cheeks as he sat on the ground making grabby hands at his nanny who was scolding Allison who was sitting on the couch with her arms crossed across her chest and scowling.

"Hold on sweetie," Niall called to the two year old. "Allison, you know that what you did was wrong. You can't bite people."

"But he had _my_ toy!"

"Sharing is caring, little girl," Niall mumbled before he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Your toy or not, you don't bite people to get what you want. Go sit in the corner for a few minutes."

Allison grumbled but went off to the corner while Niall went over to pick up Ben who was still crying and hiccuping, holding onto his hand that had slight teeth marks. Niall pouts a little as he tries to calm the child down by rubbing his back and pressing a soft kiss to his boo boo. The doorbell went off a few minutes later and Niall sighed.

"Want me to get that?!" Mason asked from the living room.

"Please, love!" Niall shouted as he looked over at Allison and told her she could come out of time out now. "The next time he takes something that's yours, come and find me. I don't want you biting people again, got it?"

"Yes," Ali mumbled with her head down.

"How's everyone?" Anne asked with a smile as she walked into the room. "What's wrong?"

"Grandma, she bite me!" Ben told his grandma as he pointed at Ali who stuck her tongue out at her brother.

"What? Oh no. Ali, sweetie, that wasn't nice," Anne told her only granddaughter who kept pouting and sat on the couch in the room while Niall smiled a little. Anne turns to look at Niall with a sympathetic smile. "Is it hard for you?"

"Some days. Today is one of those days unfortunately. I've been chasing after these two all day since they woke up," Niall tells her, trying to set Ben back down on the ground since the almost three year old was no longer crying or hiccuping but the child refused and instead held on tighter to Niall's neck. "And clingy."

Anne laughed and rubbed Ben's back.

"So how was it?" Anne asks Niall with a knowing smile and the blonde blushes as he presses his lips to Ben's temple, still swaying the child around.

"I had a great time with him," Niall admitted to Anne who smiled wider. "He's such a great guy and he's keeping my feelings into consideration since I've never done any of this before and knows it's all new to me. I really like him. A lot."

"And I know he likes you a lot too. He always talked to me on the phone about you and he'd always go on and on about how he wanted to ask you out but didn't want to scare you away. And he's also going on about how much you love the kids and how good you are with them."

"I've always loved kids, but these four in particular have a really special place in my heart. Even if one of them likes to play pranks on me," Niall tells her with a small laugh and Anne shakes her head at the mention of Edward. "I also promised that I'd help him out with Ed and even though I've got no idea how I'll get through to him, I'm determined to help out."

"You've got a very kind soul, Niall. I'm sure that you and my son will be very happy together."

Ben let out a soft sigh and Niall looked down to see that the child had fallen asleep and he couldn't help but smile. Ali was no longer in the room and Niall could hear her talking with Mason about some cartoons they were watching.

"I'm gonna go put Ben in his crib," Niall tells Anne who nods and he walks out.

Niall was walking down the hall to Ben's room when he walks past Edward's room and takes a quick peek. He finds the boy sitting on his bed playing on his phone.

"Do you need anything?" Niall asks Edward who looks up startled and for once, Niall doesn't see him with that angry expression on his face. Instead he's looking back at Niall with something he can only interpret as sadness and looking almost like he wants to reach out.

"Uh no. Is my grandma here?" Edward asks Niall normally.

"Yeah she's downstairs if you want to go see her, or I could go tell her to come up?"

"No I'll be down in a few."

Niall nods and gives him a soft smile before he leaves with Ben still cuddled in his arms. After that, Niall felt a bit hopeful and maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be so hard to get through to Ed and figure out what's wrong with him.

An hour later Niall is cleaning the mess in the playroom while Anne keeps the three kids entertained in the family room, Edward having been practically glued to Anne's side since Niall headed back downstairs after dropping Ben off in his room.

"Hey," comes that familiar deep drawled out voice that Niall's been yearning to hear all day. He quickly stands up and looks over from where he'd been bent down picking up some wooden blocks.

"Hi," Niall replies a little breathless as he smiles at the tall curly haired lad that he called his boss and his crush.

Harry crosses the room and goes over to hug the blonde who hugs him back and closes his eyes, inhaling Harry's familiar expensive cologne. One of Harry's arms was wrapped around Niall's shoulders and the other around his waist while both of Niall's were around his waist, face slightly tucked into his neck.

"You give amazing hugs," Harry says as he hugs the blonde a little tighter before letting go of him but still standing close up to where the tips of their shoes touched, Harry's hands holding onto Niall's pale ones. "How was your day?"

"Kinda stressful. Ali and Ben were having one of their we can't stand each other days which ended in her biting Ben and sitting in time out for a bit. It was a pretty normal day though," Niall joked and Harry chuckled and shook his head. "How was yours?"

"I need a vacation. Work has been so busy going back and forth between meetings and luckily dad's around this week to take some of the load off."

"Well maybe you should think about it. Take the kids somewhere and relax," Niall suggests though he knows that by now there's no way he could go days without the kids, Louis and especially not Harry.

"That sounds nice, but would you go with?"

"Nope, sorry. I'm still only the kids' nanny and we both agreed to take things slow and me going on a family vacation would kind of defeat the whole purpose," Niall tells him, letting go of Harry's hands and going back to cleaning up the mess.

"I know, I just don't think I'd like to be away from you for a week or two."

"You're cute," Niall tells Harry as he turns to smile at him and Harry laughs a little.

The two walk out of the play room when Niall is done cleaning up with a bit of Harry's help and they enter the living room, the kids looking up when their nanny and father walk in, Anne smiling at the pair.

"Well I gotta get going," Niall says as he sets the baby monitor down on the coffee table so they could keep an ear out for Ben.

"I'll drive you," Harry offers the blonde and Anne smiles knowingly.

"Uh you don't have too. I can just-"

"Nonsense, come on. Mom, I'll be back in a few."

Anne nods and Niall says goodbye to the kids before heading out the door. The two get in and Niall gives Harry directions to his place.

"Before I drop you off, how about some ice cream? I just want to spend a bit of time with you," Harry suggests as he smiles over at the blonde.

"Sounds good to me," Niall agrees.

They reach a small ice cream shop that only has three tables inside and three outside. It's Niall's favorite ice cream shop and his brother and Angela used to bring him here often when he was younger.

"What flavor do you want?" Harry asked the two walked up to the counter, his hand on Niall's lower back.

"Hmm, I'm in the mood for strawberry," Niall says and Harry nods and orders two small cups of strawberry ice cream.

Once they get their treats, they head off to sit at a table.

"Do you ever see your biological dad?" Niall asks Harry as he grabs his spoon and begins to eat his ice cream, looking up at Harry who'd been staring at him the whole time. Niall blushes a little and Harry smiles.

"Uh not much. After my sister, he kind of just started to drift away. The last time I saw him in person was a year ago," Harry replies. "Do you see your dad?"

"Not since I was three. I don't even remember what he looks like. Mom got rid of every picture of him once he left so he's pretty much a stranger to me." Niall shrugs, looking down at his ice cream but Harry knows that Niall isn't sad about it. Over the past month, he's been able to take one look at Niall and see what he's feeling.

"Do you want to see him again?"

"Back when my mom died, I wanted him to come back and be with me during that hard time, but Liam was always a better father than he ever was so if my so called father decided to show up one day, I wouldn't be interested in hearing his excuses."

"And your mom? Do you miss her?"

"Of course I do even if she wasn't exactly the best mom ever. I had to learn how to fend for myself at a young age, but those few moments where it seemed like she wanted to change and be the mom that I always wanted, it makes me miss that."

Harry smiles at the blonde and the two continue to talk before Harry's driving Niall to his house.

"Thanks for the ice cream date," Niall tells him with a smile as he takes off the seatbelt once they're parked in front of Niall's house.

"No need to thank me, love. I enjoy spending time with you," Harry tells him as he shifts a little in his seat to look at the blonde. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye, H."

Niall gets out of the car and begins to walk towards his house with a smile on his face.

*

Saturday arrives and that's Ben's birthday and the birthday party that Harry is throwing for his youngest son. Harry had also asked Niall to work on Saturday so he could help him out with the kids while him, Anne and his dad worked on setting up the backyard for Ben's little party.

"Where's Louis?" Niall asked Harry as he helped him grab the party supplies from the master bedroom closet which was practically the size of Niall's bedroom.

"He had a date last night and I'm guessing he either stayed at his apartment or is still with the guy," Harry responds as he hands Niall two bags with balloons inside. "He said he'd show up later though."

"He went on a date? With who?"

"With some guy from the office. He's a nice guy, but Louis' my brother and I'm going to be hesitant on he goes out with because I don't want him to get hurt," Harry explains as he grabs a box that has all the Paw Patrol themed birthday decorations he bought a few weeks ago.

"That's sweet." Niall smiles at Harry who blushes a little.

~

"How old are you, bub?" Niall asks Ben with a large grin as he changes the boy for his party.

"T'ree!" Ben exclaimed as he held up three little fingers and Niall gasped in an overdramatic way.

"You're so big now!"

Ben giggled and clapped his hands as Niall tied his shoes and then pressed a kiss to his head.

"Alright my love, let's go downstairs," Niall tells him as he picks up Ben and carries him out of the room, the sound of chaos already coming from downstairs.

Niall takes Ben outside where the backyard is already set up with balloons and streamers and other Paw Patrol themed party decorations. Ben was looking around at everything with wide eyes and Niall chuckled, setting the three year old down and watching him wander off.

"There's my birthday boy! Oh, look how handsome you look!" Anne exclaimed happily as she picked up her youngest grandson and kissed his cheek.

Niall jumps when he feels a hand on his back and he looks to his right to see Harry stand next to him with a smile and his gaze locked on Ben. The blonde shakes his head a little and moves a little closer to his boss.

The party is in full swing an hour later and Niall is keeping an eye out on the kids. Allison is running around with three of her friends, Mason is kicking a ball back and forth with a friend of his and Edward is sitting on a chair playing on his phone.

Louis walks out into the yard holding hands with a tall guy who has dark brown hair and they both wear large smiles which catches Niall a bit off guard. Louis heads over to Niall with the guy and Niall smiles as friendly as he can though he's a little confused.

"Hi, lad," Louis greets him. "I want you to meet Alexander, my boyfriend. Lex, babe, this is Niall, my best friend and future brother in law."

"Lewis," Niall hissed at Louis with a bright blush and Alex and Louis both laugh. "It's nice to meet you, Alex."

"Likewise, Niall. Louis' mentioned you quite a lot," Alex says with a smile, his arm wrapping around Louis' waist.

"I hope it's all good things."

"You offend me, lad. I don't always talk bad about you."

Harry makes his way over with a smile, though he's eyeing Alex and his eyes zero in on the arm the taller male has around his brother and Niall rolls his eyes at Harry though he won't admit how much he likes overprotective Harry.

"Alex, it's good to see you. Happy to know you brought my brother back in one piece," Harry says as he greets the brunette man and both Niall and Louis roll their eyes.

"I keep my promises," Alex replies with a bright smile.

Niall's pinkie brushes against Harry's and he smiles slightly before linking their little fingers together. Harry looks down at him and smiles back, tightening his hold a little.

"You embarrass me," Louis mumbled at his brother with flushed cheeks and Niall giggled.

"It's my job as your older brother to make sure that your safe and happy," Harry tells Louis.

"I don't mind. I think it's great that you're looking out for him," Alex speaks up and Louis huffs.

"Traitor."

Niall looked away for a moment and saw Liam and Angela walking in with Zayn, Perrie and her brother Alex.

"I'll be back," Niall told the group who nodded and the blonde walked over to greet them. "Hi guys."

"Hi Nialler," Zayn greets him with a bright smile.

"Didn't think you guys would come," Niall tells his brother and Angela as Zayn and Perrie walk off to greet Harry who'd been walking their way.

"Zayn dropped by and managed to convince us so here we are," Angela explains with a small roll of her eyes but there's a smile on her face and even though she looks tired, she's looking slightly better than she had been all week.

"Just for a little while," Liam tells his brother, his arm around Angela and Niall nods in understanding.

"Hello Liam, Angela. Glad you guys could make it," Harry says as he shakes Liam's hand and hugs Angela briefly before standing beside Niall and linking their pinkies together again.

"Thanks for inviting us, mate," Liam replies.

"So where's the birthday boy?" Angela asks Harry who lets out a soft sigh.

"He's been running around almost all day," Harry explains and Niall chuckles.

Perrie walks back over to them and leads Angela away to a table so she can sit while Liam, Niall and Harry keep talking. Harry walks over to his mom when she calls for him.

"Who's that with Louis?" Liam asks his brother, his eyes on Louis who's holding hands with a taller guy as they talk to two ladies.

"That's Alex, his boyfriend," Niall replies a little hesitantly as he looks at his brother with a slight frown. "I don't understand what you're feeling towards him or Angela."

"I-I don't know. I mean, I've never even looked at a guy that way, but when I saw Louis at the bar I couldn't help but see how gorgeous he was. I mean, I'm still in love with Angela and she's my everything, but there's something about Louis that I can't explain. It's like this weird feeling in me that isn't going away," Liam explains with a sigh, running a hand through his hair and looking at his younger brother who's still frowning.

"I don't get it either, but don't ruin things because you're both happy with other people."

"I know, I won't."

The party went by fast and smoothly. By the time all the guests had left, there was a big mess in the backyard and Niall was helping Harry clean up.

"Thank you for helping out today," Harry tells the blonde as he throws plates in the trash bag that Niall's lugging around.

"It was no problem. I had fun being here," Niall says as he smiles at Harry.

"So will you go on another date with me tomorrow? I mean, it's just that I'd like to spend some time with you and it was kinda hard to be around you today without being able to touch you in some way," Harry says as he walks up to Niall, hand on the blonde's hip and thumb caressing his skin under Niall's shirt.

"Sounds good to me, curly. Can we go on a picnic?" Niall asks him, stepping impossibly closer to Harry who grins wider. "I've been dying to go on a picnic for awhile now."

"That's a great idea. I know just the place to take you and bring some swim trunks too just in case."

"Daddy!" Allison yelled and Niall and Harry quickly pulled away and went back to cleaning, acting as if nothing had happened.

Niall and Harry share one final glance before the blonde walks off to dispose of the already full trash bag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you all had a lovely and safe Easter, well if you celebrate it and if you're on spring break enjoy it. if you're already back in school, sucks to be you. I hope it's sunny wherever you are because it's snowing here and it's cold.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You just did, but you can ask another," Niall replies cheekily and Harry rolls his eyes playfully which makes Niall laugh.

"Did you like our date?" Harry asks as the two head to Harry's car after their picnic and a short swim at the lake. The sun was starting to set now and it was turning the sky into shades of orange and red.

"I loved it. I'm more into simple things and this date was just perfect," Niall tells Harry honestly as they reach the car and Harry puts the picnic basket in the backseat.

"Well I'll keep that in mind for our next date, then," Harry says with a smile as he stands up straight and turns to face Niall who's leaning against the car. "You know you're pretty?"

"Uh no I didn't, but thanks," Niall tells Harry with a blush and Harry takes a step closer to the blonde.

"Well you're very pretty."

Niall rolls his eyes but he takes a step forward as well, the tips of his shoes touching the tips of Harry's. They both stare at each other with small smirks wondering who would be making the next move. Challenging each other in a way. It's Harry who breaks first because he can't just stand there staring at Niall without doing anything. So he reaches forward, cups Niall's face in his hands and kisses him.

Niall gasps a little in shock, but he quickly kisses Harry back and his first kiss is everything he thought it would be. It makes his head spin and the butterflies in his stomach are uncontrollable. There's a pair of soft lips on his and his brain can't wrap itself around that concept. Especially because they're Harry's lips and he's been wanting to kiss him since their first date.

They pull away at the same time, Harry looking a little worried but he relaxes when he sees Niall smiling wide though his cheeks are flushed and he's looking a little shy. Niall leans up again and presses his lips against Harry's, this time kissing a little more confidently. Harry moves his hands down to Niall's hips while the blonde wraps his arms around Harry's neck.

They pull away after awhile once they feel the need to breath and Niall tucks his face into Harry's neck. Harry's smile is so big he doesn't think he ever wants to stop smiling because he's holding and kissing Niall and he's the happiest he's been in awhile.

"Hey Niall? Can I ask you something?" Harry asks the blonde, pulling him away from his neck and Niall raises an eyebrow.

"You just did, but you can ask another," Niall replies cheekily and Harry rolls his eyes playfully which makes Niall laugh.

"Ha ha, you're so funny. Anyways, I wanted to ask if maybe possibly you'd like to be my boyfriend?"

"Hmm, let me think," Niall says playfully and he taps his chin which makes Harry laugh. "Alright."

"Wow, such a big effort."

Niall laughed and buried his face into Harry's chest. Harry could only laugh and keep hugging Niall. The two were having a great time together, but Harry had kids he needed to go home to and Niall had a brother that might be worried about him.

"I should take you home before your brother comes looking for me or goes to the police saying I kidnapped you," Harry jokes and Niall giggles as he pulls his face away from Harry's chest to look up at him.

"True, but I don't wanna. I'll miss you," Niall says with a pout, pecking Harry's lips a few times.

"I know, me too, but I'll see you tomorrow though and maybe we can do lunch together? I can ask my mom to stay with the kids," Harry suggests, brushing back Niall's blonde fringe and then pressing a kiss to his forehead. "I love being able to kiss you, just wish I could kiss you everyday whenever, but the kids."

"Speaking off, how long do you want to wait? I would say until I can get closer to Mason and Ed, but at this rate, we'll grow old before that happens."

Harry chuckles and says, "Let's give it a few more days and see what happens. I also want to see if I can talk to them and hopefully start building a better foundation with them. With Mason I'm finally getting somewhere, but I'm having such a hard time with Ed. And worst thing is, that I don't know where things started to go so wrong between us. We used to be close, before and even after what happened with Gemma."

"It could be because he's nearly a teenager. Liam says I was a total brat at that age."

"You were probably a cute brat though, Ed's just a plain brat. And he's pretty mean when he wants to." Harry pouts and Niall scrunches up his nose cutely.

"When I was Ed's age, you'd already graduated high school."

"What a cute baby."

They get in the car eventually after a lot of pouting and small kisses and Harry begins to drive towards Niall's home. Harry pulls up in the driveway and walks Niall to his front door.

"Alright boyfriend, this is where we part ways, but don't miss me too much," Harry jokes as he wraps an arm around Niall's waist and his other hand traces Niall's cheek.

"I'll try not too, boyfriend," Niall replies with a large smile, loving how he can now say that him and Harry are official. His first kiss and his first boyfriend, nothing could ruin his happiness right now.

The two were leaning in to share a kiss when suddenly the front door opens and Liam steps out with a worried expressing and helping Angela walk out of the house.

"What's going on?" Niall asks worriedly, noticing his sister in law's pained expression.

"I'm taking Angela to the hospital. Something's wrong," Liam says.

"I'll drive you," Harry offers as he helps Liam get Angela down the two steps and towards his car.

"Thanks mate. Alright baby, we're heading to the hospital, yeah? Everything's going to be okay," Liam reassured his fiancée as they got her in the backseat of Harry's car and Liam hopped in beside her while Niall got in the passenger seat and Harry in the drivers.

*

"You don't have to stay, you know? I'm sure the kids miss you," Niall tells Harry softly after an hour of being at the hospital, just sitting in the waiting room while the doctors looked after Angela and Liam alternated between pacing or sitting.

"I don't mind being here. Honestly," Harry says, his arm wrapped around Niall's shoulders and smiling down at the worried blonde. "I'll just need to call my mom to tell her that I'll be home a bit later."

"You're so sweet."

Harry grins and pecks Niall's lips before heading off to make the call. Liam meanwhile took Harry's old spot and Niall leaned into his side.

"How are you? You look really happy," Liam comments, a soft sad smile on his face as he looks down at his younger brother.

"I am happy. Harry's amazing and this is my first relationship. It kinda feels like I'm floating on a happy cloud or something," Niall replies as he sits up and looks at Liam who laughs at Niall's response.

"You're not high, are you?"

"No! I'm just really happy."

"I'm happy that you've found someone like Harry. He seems like a great lad, but you know if he ever hurts you, tell me so I can beat his ass."

Niall giggles and rests his head on Liam's shoulder, though his smile fades slightly because he's worried about Angela and the baby.

"Angela Gonzales?" A doctor calls out and both Liam and Niall stand up.

"She's my fiancé, how is she? Is the baby okay?" Liam asks worriedly and Niall bites his bottom lip in worry, jumping slightly when he feels a hand on his back and he looks up to see Harry.

"It's been a complicated pregnancy as you know. They're both fine right now, but we would like to keep Angela here for a few days for further monitoring. Her blood pressure is up and down and we can't control it, but she's going to be fine. I will schedule her in for another appointment once we can give her the okay to leave the hospital and appointments might be a bit more frequent now as she progresses more into the pregnancy," the doctor explained and Liam nodded.

"Can we see her?"

"Just for a bit, she needs to rest."

Liam goes in to see Angela and Niall and Harry stay in the waiting room, Harry holding Niall as they sit on a couch.

"You okay?" Harry asks softly, resting his chin on top of the blonde's head and rubbing his back softly.

"Yeah, just worried. She means a lot to me and I guess I won't stop worrying until the baby's born," Niall tells Harry softly. "The doctor had actually said she couldn't have babies, but oh surprise! She's pregnant and it's been a long five months for her. And us."

"I'm sure everything will be fine, love. You just gotta have some faith. You can have the day off tomorrow."

"Thanks for the offer, but I know Liam's going to stay and I'd rather go to work than spend my whole day here going crazy. There's not much I can do anyways."

"If you're sure, but the offer still stands."

Niall smiles softly and shakes his head.

Eventually Niall goes to see Angela and says goodbye because it was getting late and he had to get up early the next day. Harry then drives the blonde home and they stand on the porch saying their goodbyes.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning, then," Harry says as he leans down to peck Niall's lips softly.

"See you tomorrow," Niall replies back with a smile.

"If you need anything, call me, yeah?"

"I will, now get going. I'm sure the kids miss you."

Harry nods and then kisses Niall softly one last time before he leaves. Niall heads inside his empty house and lets out a small sigh.

When Harry gets home, he's greeted by Allison and Ben who scream that they missed him and Harry laughs as he picks up both kids with a bit of a struggle.

"Hi love, how's Niall's sister?" Anne asks her son once he walks into the living room where Anne and Louis were watching HGTV while the kids played with a puzzle on the coffee table.

"What's wrong with Angela?" Louis asks worriedly as he sits up.

"The doctor said her blood pressure's kind of all over and they can't stabilize it so she has to stay for a day or so at the hospital. And because her pregnancy is high risk, they're going to make her attend more appointments than a normal pregnancy would have."

"That poor girl," Anne commented and shook her head sadly.

"Niall's coming tomorrow, right?" Louis wonders and Harry nods.

"Yeah. I told him he could take the day off, but he wanted to come in anyways. On a much happier note, we're official," Harry tells his mom and brother who smile wide and cheer.

"Finally!" Louis exclaims.

"I'm happy for you love, but the kids? When are you telling them?" Anne asks worriedly and Harry sighs as he looked over at Ben and Ali who were still too focused on their puzzle.

"We didn't have time to talk about that today and with what's happening with Angela, we're going to wait a bit and then we'll see," Harry tells them and they both nod in understanding.

*

Niall arrives in the morning feeling tired. He couldn't sleep much the night before but he was anxious to see Harry and maybe get a hug and kiss before starting his day. Unfortunately for Niall though, Harry is already gone by the time he gets there and it makes Niall pout when Louis opens the front door.

"Sorry, your boyfriend had to leave early because of an emergency," Louis tells Niall who nods and steps inside. "How's Angela?"

"Liam said she had a great night so they might release her in the afternoon depending how the morning goes," Niall explained as he headed to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. "Why aren't you at work?"

"Zayn said he'd cover for me today."

"You're so lazy," Niall comments.

"Well I can't be an assistant forever and I'm kinda looking for a new job at the moment, just don't tell Harry because then he'll feel bad that he can't give me something better."

"I promise I won't say a word."

Louis sits at the island while Niall makes them coffee and then the blonde joins him.

"So tell me about Alex. He seems like a nice guy," Niall tells Louis, looking over at his friend who's smiling down at his cup of coffee and a small blush over his cheeks. "Aww! You're blushing!"

"He's the guy who stood me up that one time, but he had a family emergency and he left me a voicemail but my phone had died so I didn't see his message. My fault on that," Louis begins to say and Niall giggles.

"That's why you should always charge your phone before leaving."

"Alright mom, I got it. He's an amazing guy though and really funny. He works at the office and he's kinda up there with Harry on how important his job is. The day before Ben's birthday we finally went on our date and well one thing lead to another and we woke up in my bed completely naked the next morning," Louis explains with a shrug and Niall wrinkles his nose a little.

"I don't understand how you can have sex on the first date."

"Well if you weren't a virgin and blushed every time someone mentioned anything sexual, you'd probably understand. But that wasn't the first time Alex and I had sex." Louis shrugs and Niall gasps a little, looking like he'd just discovered that McDonald's now sells breakfast all day. "It happened a year ago in his office and Harry walked in just as I was sucking Alex's dick so I hid under the desk."

"Gross, but kinky," Niall comments as he takes a sip of his coffee and Louis laughs.

Mason walks into the kitchen just as Louis and Niall changed topics and they both look surprised to find the eleven year old up so soon.

"Need something, bud?" Niall asks Mason as he turns to face the child who walks over to them and cuddles into Niall which really surprises Niall and Louis even more.

"I don't feel good," Mason mumbled into Niall's shirt.

"Well what's wrong?" Louis asks as he watches Niall feel Mason's face for any signs of a fever.

"My tummy feels funny."

"The throwing up kind of funny or it just hurts funny?" Niall asked the child but before Mason could reply, he was throwing up on the floor and part of Niall's jeans. The blonde grimaced but rubbed Mason's back as Louis ran off to grab cleaning supplies. "I love my job."

Mason finishes throwing up and Niall wipes his mouth just as Louis walks over with cleaning supplies.

"I'm sorry," Mason tells Niall with watery eyes.

"Hey, don't worry yeah? Your uncle Lou and I will clean this up and I'll tuck you back into bed as soon as I change. Do you feel slightly better though?"

Mason nods and rubs at his eyes.

"I'll clean up here and you can borrow something of mine if you want," Louis tells Niall who got off the bar stool.

"Thanks Lou," Niall tells him and begins to head up the stairs with Mason after having wiped his jeans as much as he could.

Niall tucks Mason back into his bed and places a bucket right next to him after giving him some medicine and then Niall is off to go change into some clean pants. He ends up grabbing some joggers and finds that him and Louis are exactly the same size.

"I gave Mason some medicine and he's sleeping again," Niall tells Louis who nods, throwing paper towels into the trash and then looking quite proud of his clean up work. "I'm gonna text Harry to tell him."

"Sounds good. I'm going to my apartment, Alex left one of his jackets there and I promised I'd drop it off at work during his lunch break," Louis informs the blonde who nods. "I'll be back later!"

Niall watches Louis go and then he heads back upstairs to check on the kids as he sends Harry a text telling him that Mason was sick.

"Niall!" Mason calls out and the blonde races into his room to find him leaning into the bucket and throwing up again.

"Oh love," Niall coos as he goes over to rub Mason's back.

*

Louis walks into the hospital and heads off to the fourth floor where Niall told him Angela was. He has breakfast and a coffee for Liam and once he steps out of the elevator, he spots Liam in the waiting room.

"Hey," Louis greets him softly and Liam looks up a bit startled, but he smiles and stands up to greet Louis with a hug.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Liam asks once he pulls away.

"Brought you breakfast. Figured the food from here wouldn't be that good," Louis comments with a small shrug as he hands him the coffee and brown bag that held two muffins.

"Thank you so much for this. You didn't have to do this."

Louis only shrugs and sits next to Liam.

"How is she?"

"She had a good night, the doctor's doing some tests right now and if they come back good then she'll be able to leave by this afternoon," Liam explains as he takes a sip of his coffee.

"That's great!"

"Yeah. Have you seen Niall today?"

"I did and he got puked on by my nephew Mason. I feel bad for your brother, but he took it like a champ," Louis tells Liam who laughs. "I would have probably puked right after."

"Niall's used to getting spit on, snot, puked on and even peed on. He's an expert by now."

Louis joins Liam in laughing and then things fall quiet between the two. Louis bites his bottom lip and checks the time on his phone and finds a text from Alex which makes him smile. He might not like Alex as much as he likes Liam, but he will admit that Alex is starting to make his heart race in the way only Liam had been able to.

"The boyfriend?" Liam wonders when he sees Louis smiling.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I should get going, I'm meeting up with him for lunch later and I still have some errands to run," Louis says as he stands up. "Tell Angela that I hope she feels better soon."

"Will do and thanks for breakfast."

They hug briefly and then Louis is walking away.

*

"Hey, how's Mason?" Harry asks as he walks into the living room where Niall is sitting with Mason sleeping on the other couch. Ali, Ben and Edward are out with Anne and Richard so they don't catch whatever Mason has.

"He can't keep much of anything down," Niall tells Harry who nods as he goes over to Mason and leans down to kiss his head before going over to kiss Niall softly. The blonde kisses back and then pulls away with a grin. "I missed you today."

"I missed you more. Sorry I couldn't be here this morning, there was an emergency meeting because of some contract from Japan that fell through."

"Everything okay?" Niall asks because even though he has no idea what Harry does, all he knows is that Harry is the one in charge of the company and if a contract fell through well that can't be good.

"Yeah, we spent the last three hours in a meeting trying to figure out a way to compensate for the millions we lost, but anyways, I just wanted to come home and see you," Harry says with a pout as him and Niall walk to the kitchen where they embrace each other and can kiss each other without fearing that Mason wakes up and sees them. "Where's Louis?"

"He was meeting up with Alex for lunch, but he was a big help this morning. Especially after getting puked on," Niall tells Harry who laughs and buries his face into Niall's neck.

"My poor baby."

Niall rolls his eyes fondly but he rubs Harry's back. The best part of his days are now the parts where he gets to see Harry and hug him. It makes the bad parts in between worth it, even getting puked on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so long story short, i had this chapter done last week but i deleted it and re wrote the whole thing and it was worth it
> 
> patiently waiting for liam's and ariana's new songs. i love j balvin so i'm really excited for liam's song with him
> 
> next update on Monday :)


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry and Edward still argue and Edward still plays pranks on Niall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: There's a panic attack about halfway through or closer to the end, be careful please :)

It's a week after Mason got sick and Niall and Harry have been sneaking around stealing kisses. They hide from the kids and kiss, but they admit that the thrill of sneaking around is an interesting feeling, they also don't want to hide forever. But things with Ed aren't getting any better for them. Harry and Edward still argue and Edward still plays pranks on Niall. His most recent prank involved a tarantula that belonged to one of Edward's friends and Niall is very afraid of spiders.

Niall had been sitting on the couch reading yet another book from Harry's library while Ben and Ali were taking a nap. Mason and Edward had been out with some friends and when they returned, Edward placed the ugly looking creature on his nanny's shoulder and had it not been for Louis saving him from that, Niall would have probably passed out from the fright. All he remembers feeling is tiny legs walking down his arm and when he looked down, it was there.

It hadn't been a lovely day, especially since Niall could still feel like something was crawling down his arm hours later. When he told Harry, he practically cried because he really hates spiders and all Harry did was look amused and laugh until Niall threatened to dump him. He wouldn't break up with Harry over something so silly, but he didn't appreciate having his boyfriend laugh at his misery.

Over the week, Niall had also seen less of Louis since the older man either worked too much or actually stayed in his apartment since apparently things with Alex were moving along great. Niall was happy for his best friend, but he was also worried that things were happening too fast. He just didn't want to see Louis get hurt.

"How's your brother?" Niall asked as he followed Harry to his office with the excuse that Harry needed to talk to the blonde since the kids were all watching TV in the living room. "I haven't talked to him in a few days."

"He's a very lazy assistant, but he's been looking for a new job all week which is why you haven't seen much of him. Well that and he's practically living with Alex now which I promised I wouldn't say anything, but I think they're moving too fast," Harry replies as he closes his office door and leads Niall to a couch in the room.

"I think so too, but he looks really happy with Alex and I mean, not to sound mean or anything, but I hope he's forgotten about his crush on Liam," Niall says as he snuggles into Harry.

"Same here. Anyways, how was your day? No more spiders?"

"Harry!" Niall whined as he looked at his boyfriend with a pout.

"Aww, my poor baby. I'm sorry, I promised I wouldn't make fun of that again," Harry tells the blonde as he leans down to peck his lips.

"You're so rude to me."

"You're my favorite person in the whole entire world?" Harry tried.

"Nice try, but no. You've got four kids."

"But they're my favorite kids in the entire world and you're my favorite nanny in the entire world."

"Smooth."

Harry laughs and Niall kisses him to shut up his boyfriend. Harry kisses back and cups Niall's face in his hands, both too caught up in each other to see that the door was now open and Mason was looking at them with wide eyes. The eleven year old then narrows his eyes angrily and walks away.

"I have to get going," Niall says against Harry's lips, trying to pull away from the curly haired man but Harry simply holds him in place and keeps placing little pecks to his lips. "Harry, seriously."

"Your kisses are so sweet, I just can't get enough," Harry mumbles, kissing Niall again before pulling away completely. "I'll miss you."

"I won't," Niall jokes as he stands up, but Harry pulls him back down by his arm and the blonde lets out a small squeak at the movement. "Jerk."

"Say you'll miss me and then I'll let you go," Harry threatens as he pins Niall down onto the couch.

"What are you going to do, big boy?"

"I'll bring out the spiders. Pretty sure there's plenty of them in the attic," Harry says thoughtfully and Niall gasps.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me." Harry smirks.

"Fine. I'll miss you too," Niall eventually mumbles in defeat, but his lips are tugging up into a smile and Harry laughs before leaning down and stealing another kiss from the blonde. "Now may I go? I don't want the kids to be suspicious about why we're still locked in your office."

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then."

Niall walks out of Harry's office after fixing himself and says his goodbyes to the children, frowning a bit when Mason wouldn't even turn to look at him. Things had been going so great between the two, he wondered if maybe the child hadn't heard him. Shrugging it off, Niall heads out and starts walking towards his usual bus stop.

The next morning Niall is quite surprised when Louis opens the front door for him. He's in pajamas which is a clear sign that he spent the night and isn't going to work today.

"Long time no see," Niall tells Louis who smiles at him.

"True. I was arranging some things and looks like we might be classmates," Louis tells Niall who's eyes widen in surprise.

"No way! Really? You signed up for college?" Niall asks him as he hugs Louis who laughs and hugs him back.

"Really. I want to do something with my life and obviously being an assistant won't do forever and I really don't want to work at dad's company either so I figured going back to school to study a career will be helpful in the long run," Louis explains as he pulls away from Niall.

"That's great. I'm proud of you."

"Morning babe!" Harry greets the blonde as he walks down the hall from his office and towards the foyer where Louis and Niall are still standing.

"Morning, H," Niall greets him back with a large smile, meeting Harry halfway and placing a small kiss to his lips.

"Go make out somewhere else. I'm still trying to wake up," Louis mumbles as he walks past them and heads into the living room where he lays down on the couch.

"What's up with him?" Niall asks quietly.

"Alex is on a business trip for the next three days and Louis thinks it's the end of the world if he doesn't see him soon," Harry replies in Niall's ear, not wanting Louis to hear because he's been a little snappy. "Anyways, I gotta get going my love. Mason's been acting a little weird since yesterday afternoon and I tried talking to him, but it seems like we're back to the way it was in the beginning."

"I'll see if I can get him to tell me what's wrong, yeah?"

"Appreciate it, babe."

Harry leaves a few minutes later after a much drawn out goodbye and Niall heads into the living room where Louis is and sits on the couch with Louis' head on his lap.

"Okay?" Niall asks him, running his fingers through Louis' hair.

"I guess I just miss Alex too much," Louis replies though the answer doesn't exactly convince Niall. He feels like there's more to it than Louis is letting on.

"Okay, if you say so."

"Well I do miss him, but he's also been a little distant these last two days and I don't know if I did something or if there's something going on at work? I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting and being a clingy boyfriend."

"Well I'm sure things are fine. Like you said, he's probably working too much especially with that deal from Japan falling through," Niall tries to comfort Louis who lets out a small sigh.

"You're right. Can you make me breakfast?" Louis pouts as he looks up at Niall who laughs.

"Alright. Anything special?"

"Chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips."

Niall nods and goes off to make breakfast, leaving Louis who's still laying on the couch looking like his favorite TV character died. Awhile later, Niall is finishing up with the last batch of pancakes when Ben, Ali and Mason walk into the kitchen with Louis.

"Morning kids!" Niall greets them with a smile, not noticing the glare Mason sent his way.

"Morning!" Allison greets him as she sits at the table.

"Hi!" Ben says happily as he hugs Niall around the legs before letting his uncle Louis sit him on his little booster seat that was on a chair so Ben could now reach the table.

Niall places the pancakes on plates and Louis helps place the plates in front of the hungry children who dig in quickly. Louis helps the kids add syrup to their pancakes and then he pours chocolate syrup on his.

"That's a lot of chocolate," Niall comments as he sits next to Ben to help the child.

"I'm sad, let me eat my sorrows away," Louis replies and Ali giggles.

Breakfast comes and go and the kids run off to play as soon as they're done leaving Niall and Louis to clean up the kitchen. Edward had walked down halfway through breakfast and ate with them, still not even acknowledging Niall or Louis.

"So how are you and my brother doing?" Louis asks Niall who smiles wide at the mention of Harry.

"Perfect. Well I mean, it could be perfect if the kids knew, but we're still trying to look for the right time," Niall replies as he wipes down the counters.

"And when's that? When they all head out to college?"

"I guess we have been putting it off. I'm honestly not sure. I'm worried though and I know Harry is as well, especially because of his non existent relationship with his oldest son."

"Well if I'm being honest, Ed's always going to be a problem unless a miracle happens and he stops being such an angry twelve year old."

Niall chuckles and they finish up their cleaning. Niall goes off to find the you get two kids and Louis heads up to his room probably to keep drowning in his sadness.

"Ni, can we play outside?" Allison asks her nanny who nods. "Can we swim?"

"Uh no. Maybe later, yeah?" Niall tells her. The idea of letting a five and three year old in the pool when their father isn't around makes him nervous.

Outside Ben kicks a ball around happily and Allison runs around blowing bubbles and popping them. Niall sits under a shady spot and he smiles when his phone starts going off with Harry's name flashing on the screen.

"Hi," Niall answers him, leaning back against his seat and keeping his eyes on the kids who are giggling as the two now pop the bubbles.

"Hi my love, how's your day so far?" Harry asks.

"Pretty chill though your brother made me make him chocolate pancakes with chocolate chips for breakfast."

"He's been sad since yesterday, says it's because he misses Alex."

"Yeah that's what he told me. Anyways, how's your day?" Niall asks Harry, wishing he were inside and away from the heat.

"It's been a pretty long morning. I just want to go home," Harry says with a sigh.

"Well why don't you? You're the boss aren't you?"

"I am, but I can't. I have a meeting that I can't get out of today unless it's an emergency. We're still not over that Japan deal falling through."

"I'm sure you'll find a solution to it soon."

"Hopefully. Anyways, I gotta go. Tell the kids that I love them and that I'll see them later."

"Will do. Bye babe."

"Bye my sweet love," Harry says and then the two hang up, Niall with a smile on his face.

*

"Kids! Lets go inside so we can have lunch!" Niall calls out when he sees that the time on his phone says twenty to noon.

"Can we have Mac and cheese?!" Ali asks excitedly as she bounces over to her nanny, face a little red and hair sticking to her face with sweat.

"Okay."

They head inside and Niall gives the two water before letting them go off to watch cartoons. Louis still hasn't left his room and it's obvious where the other two boys are. Niall checked the cupboards for the mac and cheese, but he couldn't find any there so he sighs and headed towards the pantry. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, wanting to grab the box quickly and get out because Niall didn't like going into the pantry. The lightbulb didn't work and it was big enough to be inside, but still small enough to make him feel claustrophobic.

"Where is it?" Niall asked himself as he searched through the food using his phone as light.

Suddenly the door slams shut and the locks they use to keep Ben and Allison from entering the pantry make that click that indicates that the door is now locked and Niall begins to panic.

"Oh no," Niall mumbled as he tried to open the door, banging on it in hopes that someone would hear.

All he hears are the familiar snickers that Edward and Mason make every time they play a prank on him.

"Edward! Mason! This isn't funny!" Niall shouts as he bangs on the door, already feeling his chest a little tight. "Open the door!"

He gets no reply and Niall keeps banging on the door for a bit longer, eventually sliding down against it. He could feel the walls closing in and he was starting to find it hard to breath. Niall quickly grabs his phone and dials Louis' number, cursing when the older lad doesn't answer. The blonde bangs on the door desperately again as he calls Louis once more about a minute later. Niall calls again and Louis answers this time, Niall letting out a choked sob.

"Niall? What's wrong? Wait, I thought you were downstairs," Louis answers in confusion.

"P-Pantry. Locked," Niall managed to wheeze out and he's pretty sure his panic attack is triggering his asthma which he hasn't had a problem with in years so he doesn't even carry his inhaler anymore.

"Fuck. I'll be right down in a second. Just take deep breaths for me, yeah?" Louis pleads desperately before hanging up.

Niall closes his eyes as he leans back and takes in deep breaths to calm himself. It works to the point where it keeps him from panicking further, but once he opens his eyes again he starts to feel the walks closing in on him all over again. The blonde can hear Louis out there yelling at the kids before the lock is coming undone and the door opens, nearly causing Niall to fall backwards.

"Hey, come on lad. It's okay," Louis says softly as he helps Niall up and out of the pantry.

Niall doesn't even notice the children all standing there watching; Ben and Ali with wide scared eyes, Ed with a guilty expression and Mason like he doesn't even care.

"You two are going to be in so much trouble," Louis warns the older two kids as he leads Niall up the stairs.

Louis takes Niall to Harry's room and sits him on the bed.

"Hey, you okay?" Louis asks as he sits next to the blonde and rubs his back.

"I-I don't like t-tight s-spaces," Niall stutters out, heart still racing and hands shaking. "M-My mom locked me in a c-closet o-once. All night."

"Harsh," Louis mumbles with wide eyes. He can't imagine being trapped in a closet for a whole night. No wonder the poor lad freaked out so much. "Do you need me to get you some water?"

"N-No, I'm fine. Just-"

"I get it, yeah? Why don't you rest up a bit and I'll go take care of the kids and talk with the older two, yeah? You're still pretty shaken up."

Niall nods and Louis kisses his head before heading out of the room and closing the door after him. Niall takes off his shoes and lays down on Harry's bed, taking in deep breaths to calm his racing heart.

Downstairs, Louis is looking for Edward and Mason when the front door opens and Harry walks in looking worried.

"What happened? Is Niall okay?" Harry asks his brother.

"Yeah, he's up in your room. I'm looking for Edward and Mason though," Louis says a little angrily.

"When you find them, tell them to wait for me in the living room. I'm going to go check on Niall."

Louis nods and heads off to find his nephews while Harry heads up the stairs. Harry walks into his bedroom and finds Niall laying on his bed with his back to the door so he doesn't see Harry, but he turns around when he feels a dip in the bed.

"What are you doing here?" Niall asks groggily as he looks up at Harry, blue eyes still glazed with a hint of panic.

"Louis sent me a text saying the boys locked you in the pantry and that you were having a panic attack. You okay?" Harry asks as he lays down next to the blonde and wraps an arm around him, spooning Niall who gladly settles into him.

"Yeah, just have a bit of an issue with tight spaces thanks to my mother. I thought you had a meeting today."

"It was almost over when Louis texted and I told them that I had a family emergency and here I am. You sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, it's not that important," Niall says with a shrug and Harry only tightens his old on the blonde.

"Anything that has to do with you is important to me because you're my boyfriend and I care about you and having a panic attack is a serious thing, Ni. Especially because the boys were what triggered you to have that in the first place and that's not okay. Their pranks have really gone too far this time," Harry says seriously and Niall lets out a small sigh.

"Don't be too rough on them."

"Ni, babe, they have to learn that they can't do things like that. If I don't put a stop to their pranks now, they won't stop." Niall doesn't say anything else and Harry kisses his cheek. "I'm gonna go talk to the boys, alright? You get some rest."

When Harry gets downstairs, he finds both his older boys sitting on the couch in the living room with scowls on their faces and Harry sighs as he stands in front of them.

"You went too far," Harry told the two, not trying to sound as angry as he felt.

"Oh please, he's just exaggerating," Edward says, though he's not so convinced with his argument.

"You think having a panic attack is exaggerating? It's not and I am not happy with you two at all. You're both grounded for the next two weeks and that means no video games and no going out with friends, are we clear?"

"That's not fair!" Mason shouts as he glares up at his father.

"And you think it was fair locking Niall in the pantry?" Harry asks them and neither say anything anymore. "Two weeks, understood?"

Edward and Mason nod and head up the stairs to their rooms. Louis walks out of the kitchen and smiles at his brother.

"I know it's hard to punish them, but they're really getting out of hand now," Louis reassured Harry who nodded in defeat.

"I know. Where are Ali and Ben?"

"I made them lunch and they're eating right now. Go with Niall, I'll watch over the kids."

"Thanks." Harry hugged Louis briefly before heading upstairs to his room.

Niall is fast asleep on Harry's bed and the curly haired man simply smiles. He removes his shoes, jacket and belt before getting on the bed next his boyfriend. Harry presses a light kiss to the back of his boyfriend's neck and just holds him while he sleeps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tired

**Author's Note:**

> Updated when possible :)


End file.
